Summer Reading Suggestions
Note: (YA) = Young Adult title for more mature readers
| Award | | porary | Sci Fi | Fiction | | cultural | Suspense | | |
Any books by these authors:
Ray Bradbury, Michael Crichton, Paul Fleischman, Phyllis Naylor, Katherine Paterson, Gary Paulsen, and Phillip Pullman.
California Young Reader AwardNominees:
(I know we're in PA, but it might be interesting to see what kids inCA are reading, too).
Clements, Andrew Things Not SeenWhen fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up and finds himself invisible, he and his parents and his new blind friend Alicia try to find out what caused his condition and how to reverse it.Ferris, Jean Of Sound Mind (YA)
Tired of interpreting for his dead family and resentful of their reliance on him, high school senior Theo finds support and understanding from Ivy, a new student who also has a deaf parent.Grimes, Nikki Bronx Masquerade (YA)
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they have written revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.Horowitz, Andrew Stormbreaker
After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle's dangerous work for Britain's Intelligence Agency, M16.Jimenez, Francisco Breaking Through
Having come from Mexico to California ten years ago, fourteen-year-old Francisco is still working in the fields but fighting to improve his life and complete his education.Tolan, Stephanie Surviving the Applewhites
Jake, a budding juvenile delinquent, is sent for home schooling to the arty and eccentric Applewhite family's Creative Academy, where he discovers talents and interests he never knew he had.
Austen, Jane Pride and PrejudiceIn early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman, Elizabeth Bennett, copes with the courtship of a snobbish gentleman, Mr. Darcy, as well as the romantic entanglements of her four sisters.Bradbury, Ray Fahrenheit 451
"Fahrenheit 451 -- temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns." A book burner in a future fascist state finds out books are a vital part of a culture he never knew. He secretly pursues reading until he is betrayed.Carroll, Lewis Alice in Wonderland
A little girl falls down a rabbit hole and discovers a world of nonsensical and amusing characters.Stevenson, Robert Louis Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
A respected doctor who lives a secret double life begins losing his identity to his violent evil side.Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings (trilogy)
Frodo, the hobbit, and a band of warriors from the different kingdoms set out to destroy the Ring of Power before the evil Sauron grasps control.
Creech, Sharon Granny Torrelli Makes SoupWith the help of her wise old grandmother, twelve-year-old Rosie manages to work out some problems in her relationship with her best friend Bailey, the boy next door.Henkes, Kevin Olive's Ocean *2004 Newbery Honor Book
On a summer visit to her grandmother's cottage by the ocean, twelve-year-old Martha gains perspective on the death of a classmate, on her relationship with her grandmother, on her feelings for an older boy, and on her plans to become a writer.Hoffman, Alice Green Angel (YA)
Haunted by grief and by her past after losing her family, fifteen-year-old Green retreats into her ruined garden as she struggles to survive emotionally and physically on her own.Horvath, Polly The Canning Season * 2003 National Book Award
Thirteen-year-old Ratchet spends a summer in Maine with her eccentric great-aunts Tilly and Penpen, hearing strange stories from the past and encountering a variety of unusual and colorful characters.Johnson, Angela The First Part Last (YA) *2004 Coretta Scott King Award
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.Konigsburg, E.L. The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place
Upon leaving an oppressive summer camp, twelve-year-old Margaret Rose Kane spearheads a campaign to preserve three unique towers her granduncles have been building in their backyard for over forty years.Koss, Amy Gossip Times Three
The relationships among three friends change in seventh grade when they discover that two of them have a crush on the same boy.Nelson, Theresa Ruby Electric
Twelve-year-old Ruby Miller, movie buff and aspiring screen writer, tries to resolve the mysteries surrounding her little brother's stuffed woolly mammoth and their father's five year absence.Paulsen, Gary, editor Shelf Life - Stories by the Book
Ten short stories in which the lives of young people in different circumstances are changed by their encounters with books.Philbrick, Rodman The Young Man and the Sea
After his mother's death, twelve-year-old Skiff Beaman decides that it is up to him to earn money to take care of himself and his father, so he undertakes a dangerous trip alone out on the ocean off the coast of Maine to try to catch a huge blue tuna.Wallace, Bill Skinny Dipping at Monster Lake
When twelve-year-old Kent helps his father in a daring underwater rescue, he wins the respect he has always craved.
Colfer, Eoin The Eternity Code: Artemis Fowl Book 3Artemis Fowl's father has made him promise to give up his life of crime and Artemis must go along with it, but not before he completes one last scheme: a supercomputer that will render all human technology obsolete.Collins, Suzanne Gregor the Overlander
When twelve-year-old Gregor and his two-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle involving humans, bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders while on a quest foretold by ancient prophecy.Corder, Zizou Lion Boy
In the near future, a boy with the ability to speak the language of cats sets out from London to seek his kidnapped parents and finds himself on a Parisbound circus ship learning to train lions.DiCamillo, Kate The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse…. *2004 Newbery Award Winner
The adventures of Despereaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin.Dickinson, Peter The Tears of the Salamander
When Alfredo, a twelve-year-old choir boy in eighteenth century Italy, loses his family in a fire, he goes to live with his Uncle Giorgio, who he discovers is a sorcerer in control of the fires of Mt. Etna with sinister plans for his nephew.Funke, Cornelia Inkheart
Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father Mo, a bookbinder, can "read" fictional characters to life when an evil ruler named Capricorn, freed from the novel "Inkheart," tries to force Mo to release an immortal monster from the story.Paolini, Christopher Eragon
In Aagaesia, a fifteen-year-old boy of unknown lineage called Eragon finds a mysterious stone that weaves his life into an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, and power, peopled with dragons, elves, and monsters.Philbrick, Rodman The Last Book of the Universe
In a future time where no one reads, a boy meets an old man who has lots of crazy, wonderful ideas. Together they try to change their world.
Lyon, Mary Letters from a Slave Girl:The Story of Harriet JacobsThe life of Harriet Jacobs is told in the form of letters that she might have written during her slavery in North Carolina and as she prepared to escape to the North in 1842.Orlev, Uri Run, Boy, Run
Based on the true story of a boy who escapes the Warsaw Ghetto and must survive throughout the war in the Nazi-occupied Polish countryside.Pearsall, Shelley Trouble Don't Last
Samuel, an 11-year-old Kentucky slave, and the elderly slave who helped raise him, attempt to escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad.Peck, Richard The River Between Us *2003 National Book Award Honor Book
During the early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in two mysterious young ladies who have fled New Orleans to come north to Illinois.Richardson, V.A. The House of Windjammer
In the fall of 1636, Adam, fourteen-year-old heir to the House of Windjammer, must find a way to keep his family afloat after his father dies and tulip fever sweeps Amsterdam.
Coville, Bruce Juliet Dove, Queen of LoveA shy twelve-year-old girl must solve a puzzle involving characters from Greek mythology to free herself from a spell which makes her irrestible to boys.Gliori, Debi Pure Dead Brilliant
Time travel, a deadly computer, and other strange things begin to happen when some would-be witches come to stay with the eccentric Strega-Borgia family.Lubar, David Hidden Talents
Thirteen-year-old Martin, a new student at an alternative school for misfits and problem students, falls in with a group of boys with psychic powers and discovers something surprising about himself.Mackler, Carolyn The Earth, My Butt, and Other Round Things (YA)
Feeling like she doesn't fit in with the other members of her family, who are all thin, brilliant and good-looking, fifteen-year-old Virginia tries to deal with her self-image, her first relationship, and her disillusionment with some of the people close to her.Martin, Ann M. The Meanest Doll in the World
Annabelle and Tiffany, dolls who are best friends living in the Palmer house, have an adventure when they hide in Kate Palmer's backpack, are carried to school, mistakenly go to another house and try to stop Princess Muni, a doll who threatens all dolldom.
Alvarez, Julia Before We Were Free *2004 Pura Belpre Medal WinnerIn the early 1960s in the Dominican Republic, twelve-year-old Anita learns her family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody rule of dictator, General Trujillo.Cameron, Ann Colibri
Kidnapped when she was very young by an unscrupulous man who has forced her to lie and beg to get money, a twelve-year-old Mayan girl endures an abusive life, always wishing she could return to the parents she can hardly remember.Cisneros, Sandra Caramelo (YA)
A multi-generational story of a Mexican family whose voices create a dazzling weave of humor, poignancy, and passion from Chicago to Mexico City to San Antonio, Texas.Dewey, Jennifer Minik's Story (YA)
Minik, an adolescent Inuit girl, relates the conflicts brought into her tribe by the arrival of a priest from a whaling ship in the late nineteenth century.Ellis, Deborah Mud City
The story of fourteen-year-old Shauzia, who escaped from Kabul, Afghanistan, and who is unhappy with her life as a refuge in a camp in Pakistan.Grimes, Nikki Jazmin's Notebook
Jazmin, an African-American teenager who lives with her older sister in a small Harlem apartment in the 1960s, finds strength in writing poetry and keeping a record of the events in her sometimes difficult life.Osa, Nancy Cuba 15
Violet Paz, a Chicago high school student reluctantly prepares for her "quince," a Spanish nickname for the celebration of an Hispanic girl's fifteenth birthday.Park, Linda Sue When My Name Was Keoko
With national pride and occasional fear, a brother and sister face the increasingly oppressive occupation of Korea by Japan during World War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture entirely.
Lawrence, Caroline The Thieves of OstiaIn Rome in the year 79 A.D., a group of children from very different backgrounds work together to discover who beheaded a pet dog - and why. This is the first in a series of mysteries set in Ancient Rome.Naylor, Phyllis Bernie McGruder and the Bats in the Belfry
Many residents of Middleburg, Indiana, are already going crazy from the ever-ringing church bells and now, after a bat is spotted in the hotel run by Bernie's family, they worry that the dangerous Indiana Aztec bat has finally arrived.Nimmo, Jenny Charlie Bone and the Time Twister
While at Bloor's Academy, Charlie Bone gets a surprise when Henry Yewbean arrives from the year 1916 and needs Charlie's help to stay alive.Shan, Darren Cirque du Freak (series)
Two boys who are best friends visit an illegal freak show, where an encounter with a vampire and a deadly spider forces them to make life-changing choices. (Start with Book One.)
Balchin, Judy Creative LetteringUse creative lettering for eight different projects. Included are explanations of techniques, materials needed and alphabet patterns.Driscoll, Michael A Child's Introduction to Poetry
Colorful illustrations and poems introduce the reader to poetry, teaching them about different types of poems and the most popular poets from history.Fleming, Candace Ben Franklin's Almanac
The life of Benjamin Franklin is told in a "scrapbook" format with etchings, artifacts, and quotations.Hardesty, Von Air Force One: The Aircraft That Shaped the Modern American Presidency
The book shows how aircraft have been used by U.S. presidents in the second half of the twentieth century and explains how the presidency itself has been affected by events throughout the century.Hudson, Wade Powerful Words: More Than 200 Years of Extraordinary Writing by African Americans
Excerpts from the writings and speeches of over thirty notable African-Americans from colonial times to the twenty-first century. It includes commentary about the time period in which each person lived, information about the speaker/writer, and public response to the words.Kiefer, Joanne Jobs for Kids: A Smart Kid's Q & A Guide
Answers questions about the five most popular jobs for young people, as well as about other ways they can make money, with advice on the planning and marketing involved.Krull, Kathleen Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez
A biography of Cesar Chavez, from age ten when he and his family lived happily on their Arizona ranch, to age thirty-eight when he led a peaceful protest against California migrant workers' miserable working conditions.Kurlansky, Mark The Cod's Tale
Outlines the history of fishing for and consuming of codfish from the time of the Vikings through the present. Includes discussions of the cod's life cycle, over-fishing, and recipes using the fish.Martin, Laura Nature's Box
From t-shirts to twig baskets, 65 projects for krafty kids to make with natural materials you can find anywhere. There are more than sixty projects made from natural materials.Murphy, Jim An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793
*2004 Newbery Honor Book, 2003 National Book Award Honor BookIn 1793 an invisible killer roamed the streets of Philadelphia. It was yellow fever. The book tells the story of the frantic race to find the cause and, hopefully, a cure. The lessons learned are relevant to us in the twenty-first century.Myers, Walter Dean A Time to Love: Stories From the Old Testament
A retelling of six stories from the Old Testament which explore the complexity of love from the perspective of Ruth, Delilah, Reuben, Isaac, Gamiel, and Zillah.Schyffert, Bea Uusma The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon
Michael Collins circled the moon while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on it. The book describes Michael's everyday activities while aboard Apollo 11 as well as background on all three astronauts.Woodson, Jacqueline Locomotion *2004 Coretta Scott King Honor Book, 2003 National Book Award Honor Book
Inspired by his teacher, eleven-year-old Lonnie begins to write about his life in a series of poems in which he discusses his feelings about his friends, his foster mom, his little sister Lili, and the death of his parents.
Gutman, Dan Million Dollar GoalTwins Dawn and Dusk learn to admire their crotchety old grandmother when they take on the task of training her to play hockey after she wins a chance to shoot a goal for a million dollars; but when she dies before the contest, they must decide who is going to take her place.Hale, D & M LaBrot Red Card
After living in a series of foreign countries, thirteen-year-old Zeke Armstrong moves to Dallas,Texas, and hopes to have a normal life. He joins the Sundogs soccer team and soon finds himself at the Lone Star Invitational tournament. When someone tries to kill his coach, he finds himself in the middle of another adventure.Paulsen, Gary How Angel Peterson Got His Name
Gary Paulsen relates tales from his youth in a small town in northwestern Minnesota in the late 1940s and early 1950s, such as skiing behind a souped-up car and imitating daredevil Evel Knievel.
D. Fischer
Modified: August 24, 2008