It's a preposterous headline, but a good way to start thinking about summer reading. As much as I want to let my kids veg a bit after a long school year, I want to get them started on some great books now that will inspire good reading habits for the rest of the summer. Take a look at my four suggestions -- all admittedly in the grade school range -- and some other recent lists. Then post your recommended books below!
Top 4 summer reading books for kids ...
Can't you just feel the summer coming?! It's in the air, and in the waning homework and focus my kids have for school. While I want to let the kids veg a bit after a long school year, I'm also hoping to get them started on summer reading books before the break starts.
By edinajo
June 6, 2011 at 8:47PM
Winners Take All, by Fred Bowen. I read this to my son's third grade class a year ago. Boys and girls in the class kept asking me to return and finish it. Lots of baseball books out there, but this one has an ethical dilemma: what would you do if you dropped a ball in the outfield but everybody else believed you caught it?
The War With Grandpa, by Robert Kimmel Smith. It's a rare book that attracts the diverging interests of my son and daughter. Both were intrigued by this "war" book about a boy who goes on the offensive when his grandpa moves in and takes over his bedroom.
Belly Up, by Stuart Gibbs. A boy who lives on site at a zoo investigates the mysterious death -- murder? -- of the zoo's famed hippo. The book starts fast -- drags at times -- but has an irresistible premise.
The Loser List, by Holly Kowitt. My daughter loved this so much that she finished it in a couple days. So much for this being a summer reading book! It's a "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" clone, and features the adventures of a boy trying to get his name off the "loser list" in the girls' bathroom at school.
Sylvan Learning released a K-12 summer reading list late last week:
- Kindergarten: Whose Mouse Are You? by Robert Krause; Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
- Grade 1: Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin; Anansi the Spider by Gerald McDermott
- Grade 2: Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle; How Much Is a Million by David M. Schwartz, Stephen Kellogg
- Grade 3: Granny Torrelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech; Beach for the Birds by Bruce McMillan
- Grade 4: Summer Reading is Killing Me! By Jon Scieszka; So You Want To Be President? by Judith St. George
- Grade 5: Holes by Louis Sachar; Science Kitchen by Chris Maynard
- Grade 6: Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket; My Life in Dog Years by Gary Paulsen
- Grade 7: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck; Amistad: A Long Road to Freedom by Walter Dean Myers
- Grade 8: Ender's Game (Ender Series #1) Orson Scott Card; Our Town by Thornton Wilder
- Grade 9: Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard; Silent Spring by Rachel L. Carson
- Grade 10: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut; Profiles In Courage by John F. Kennedy
- Grade 11: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens; She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith and Katherine G. Balderston
- Grade 12: Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift and Pat Rogers; Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Brooke Jackman Foundation released its first list of recommended books, mostly for pre-school children, based on consultation with celebrities and experts.
- Go Dog, Go by P.D. Eastman (recommended by actress Jamie Lee Curtis)
- James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (Curtis)
- The Tin Forest by Helen Ward (recommended by Reading Rainbow creator Twila Liggett)
- Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe (Liggett)
- Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (recommended by children's author Stephanie Calmenson)
- All the Way to America: The Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel by Dan Yaccarino (Calmenson)
- The Story About Ping, by Marjorie Flack (recommended by foundation director Katie Davis)
- The Best Pet of All by David LaRochelle (Davis)
- The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop (recommended by actor Alec Baldwin)
- The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton (Baldwin)
- A Picnic in October by Eve Bunting (recommended by author Dr. Gay Su Pinnell)
- Mr. Gumpy's Outing by John Burningham (Pinnell)
about the writer
edinajo
“This was certainly not an outcome that we were hoping would materialize, and we know that today’s path forward does not provide a perfect solution,” interim OCM director Charlene Briner said Wednesday.
