Sylvan Learning’s Summer Reading List for Kids

For most kids, summer means leaving behind classes and homework. But summer should not be the equivalent of a learning-free time for kids. To encourage learning in the summer months, Sylvan Learning offers a suggested reading list for grades K-12 to help parents find the right book for their child and make summer reading fun.

Elementary School

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
                 A 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 and Illustrated by David Small
 
Grade 5:  Holes by Louis Sachar
                 Kitchen Science by Chris Maynard

Middle School

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) by Orson Scott Card
                 Our Town by Thornton Wilder

High School

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
                   Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Sylvan Learning offers a free reading incentive program for children in grades K-8 at bookadventure.com. With Book Adventure, children can create personalized book lists from more than 7,500 recommended titles, take quizzes on the books they’ve read at school or at home, and earn prizes for comprehension of the books they’ve read.

Also see: A Parent’s Guide to Summer in the NYC Area

10 Ways to Help Your Child Be an Excellent Reader