Summer Reading Lists Abound on the Web

In Front of the Class

by Gary Hopkins, Education World®

Today, we survey some of the best children's summer reading lists on the Web. Here, you'll find an overview of great lists that you or your school's staff might use to create your own summer reading program.

Many local libraries have active summertime programs that encourage and reward children for summer reading. And many schools provide summer reading assignments or summer reading lists.

The Web abounds with summer reading lists offering bundles of reading suggestions. Following are more than a dozen of those lists. The selection here offers excellent resources for students who are searching for something good to read, parents who are looking to help kids locate great books, or teachers who might be compiling reading lists for kids to take home this summer or anytime.

A List of Great Lists

Summer Reading List 2008
These lists of titles have been compiled by librarians at member schools of the Houston Area Independent Schools Library Network (HAISLN). The lists include both fiction and nonfiction books by some of the best authors for children and young adults. Lists presented for PreK-12.

Summer Reading Lists
Charlottesville (Virginia) Catholic School presents these lists or required and suggested reading. Separate lists for each grade K to 8.

Summer Reading for Kids
These books have been selected by Vermont public school librarians and are recommended for summer reading for children and young adults. Published on the Vermont Education Association's Web page, Summer Reading offers separate lists for students in grades K through 4, 5 through 8, and 9 through 12.

Summer Reading Lists
These lists, from the Mountain Brook City Schools in Birmingham, Alabama, recommend books for students in grades 1 through 3, 4, 5, 6, junior high school (grades 7 through 9), and high school.

Summer Reading Lists
Middlesex Middle School in Darien, Connecticut, provides reading lists for social studies and science, as well as English.

Summer Fun Reading List
These lists include books for students in K through 5. Book lists are divided by grade levels of students entering grades K and 1, 2 and 3, and 4 and 5, as well as into such categories as poetry, picture books, and classic fiction to read aloud to the whole family.

Elementary Summer Reading List
This list from the Wayland (Massachusetts) Public Schools includes fiction titles for beginning readers, students in grades 2 and 3, and students in grades 4 and 5, as well as lists of books of poetry, books of fairy tales, biographies, books for families to read aloud, and more.

Boulder (Colorado) Public Library Booklists for Kids
This list of lists from the BPL includes summer reading chapter books and summer reading picture books.

Fairfax County Public Library Books for School-Age Children
Though not specifically created as summer reading lists, these lengthy lists include great summer reading ideas. Individual lists are offered for students in grades 1 to 6.

Summer Reading Lists
This resource from Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Schools includes four separate lists -- for students going into grades 6, 7 and 8, 9 and 10, and 11 and 12.

Boston Public Schools Summer Reading Lists
Four lengthy book lists -- for students in grades K through 3, 4 and 5, 6 through 8, and 9 through 12 -- offer titles sorted by genre. These lists, created in association with the Boston Public Library, include titles in Spanish for students in grade K through 8.

Additional Summer Reading Resources

Choices Booklist
Each year the International Reading Association (IRA) invites 10,000 schoolchildren to read and vote for the best newly published books. This site provides the children's list as well as a list of teachers' picks for the best books.

Publish Your Book Reviews
Have children publish their book reviews on Web sites that offer readers the opportunity to share their opinions about books. This issue of Barbara Feldman's Surfing the Net with Kids newsletter offers links to a handful of such opportunities!

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