Summer Reading Lists For Kids, Tweens, and Teens

Reading Lists for Grades 4-8

These middle-grade reading lists tend to include books for ages 8/9-12 as well as 10-14. They include:

• Award-Winning Historical Fiction for Middle-Grade Readers,
• Best Narrative Non-Fiction for Middle Graders
• 10 Funny Boys! Book for Fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid
• Bullies and Bullying in Children's Books, which covers a slightly wider age range
• Fairy Tales With A Twist for Middle-Grade Readers
• Video Book Talks: MiddleMiddle-Grade list of the books, fiction, and nonfiction mentioned in the videos.

Books for Teen Boys, Girls and Teen Reluctant Readers

Librarian Jennifer Kendall has prepared a number of recommended reading lists for teenagers:

• Books for Reluctant Teen Readers: A Quick Pick List for Teens
• 10 Popular Books for Teen Boys
• Modern Fairy Tales for Teen Girls
• Dystopian Novels for Teens
• Dark Fantasy Books for Teens who Love Twilight

Books for Boys Recommended by Librarians

The books on the Librarians Recommend Books for Boys list and other books for boys reading lists include children's books and young adult books that will appeal to a wide range of ages and interests. Even boys who complain they can never find anything good to read and, as a result, are reluctant readers, should be able to find books they enjoy on some of these lists. While none of them are specifically summer reading lists, they all could be used as such.

HAISLN Recommended Reading Lists

These annotated reading lists, which contain a lot of more recent books, come from the Houston Area Independent Schools Library Network (HAISLN). Eight reading lists are available in pdf format:

Preschool, Prekindergarten, Kindergarten (including And Then It’s Spring, , Waiting, The Lion and the Mouse and Firefly July: a Year of Very Short Poems)

Grades 1 & 2 (including Quest, Ivan: The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla, Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature, Each Kindness, "Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors? The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell,"f and Ivy + Bean)

Grades 3 & 4 (including Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures and The Lightning Thief)

Grade 5 (including The Meaning of Maggie, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, and )

Grade 6 (including How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous)

Grade 7 & 8 (including The Crossover, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children)

Grades 9 & 10 (including Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon and The Catcher in the Rye)

Grades 11 & 12 (including The Book Thief)

To download any of the lists, go to HAISLN.

National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Booklist for Young Readers

If you are looking for summer reading lists with lots of classics on them, check out this three-part reading list from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The fiction and nonfiction books on it were picked for their “lasting value.”

Kindergarten - Grade 3 (including Harold and the Purple Crayon, The Carrot Seed, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, The Snowy Day, The Story of Ferdinand, The Hundred Dresses and Where the Wild Things Are)

Grades 4 - 6 (including​ D’Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths, Because of Winn-Dixie, Coraline, The Borrowers and Harriet the Spy)

Grades 7 - 8 (including A Wrinkle in Time, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, The Wednesday Wars, and Across Five Aprils)

The list is available on the NEH website.

Notable Children's Books Lists

The annotated Notable Children's Books reading list includes the current John Newbery, Randolph Caldecott, Pura Belpré, Robert F. Siebert, Coretta Scott King, Theodor Seuss Geisel and Batchelder Award winners and Honor books, among other notable books. The reading list is divided into four categories: Younger Readers, Middle Readers, Older Readers, and All Ages. It includes both children's books and young adult (YA) books. The list includes books for a wide range of ages, from babies through age 14.

See the latest Notable Children's Books List.

Boston Public Schools: Grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12 Book Lists

There are links to five reading lists on the Boston (Massachusetts) Public Schools' Summer Resources page. There are four lists:

K - Grade 2 (including "Last Stop on Market Street," and the Elephant and Piggie series)

Grades 3-5 (including The Strange Case of Origami Yoda series, The Magician's Elephant, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, the Big Nate series, Just So Stories and )

Grades 6-8 (including Schooled, Esperanza Rising, The Marvels, Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart, Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes and )

Grades 9-12 (including Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy)

Download the appropriate book list flyer for your child. Although the book lists are not annotated, they are divided into categories.

See all the Boston Public Schools 2016 Book Lists.

Current Brookline Reading Lists

This series of 8-12 page reading lists that you can download as PDFs comes from The Public Schools of Brookline, Massachusetts. These excellent annotated lists, prepared by the school librarians, are well-organized and contain both recent and classic books. Whether your child is entering PK-K or high school, or any grades in between, you'll find a helpful list.

Download the current Brookline Reading Lists.

Current Kids K-5 Summer Reading Booklist

Librarians at Brooklyn Public Library, New York Public Library, Queens Library, and the NYC Department of Education School Library System selected the books on the list, which is divided by grade level. Recommended books include:

Grade K & 1 (including )

Grades 2 & 3 (including ​An Egg Is Quiet)

Grades 2 & 3 Series (including The Magic Tree House)

Grades 4 & 5 (including Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures and )

See the full Kids K-5 Summer Reading Booklist.