Summer Reading Lists for Kids

Tomorrow is the last day of school for my kids. Watch out summer, here we come!

I've been busy scheming and planning how to make the most of the coming months. New job charts are hot off the press and include 20 minutes of daily reading. In ancitication of them complaining, "there's nothing to read," I've created recommended reading lists for each of my children. Here they are:


Boy – age 14

Lloyd Alexander -- The Black Cauldron (series)

Isaac Asimov -- Foundation and Empire series

Enid Blyton -- The Famous Five books, also her Secret Seven series

Raymond Briggs -- Fungus the Bogeyman

John Buchan -- The Thirty-nine Steps

Orson Scott Card -- Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide

Daniel Defoe -- Robinson Crusoe

Alexander Dumas -- The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo

Madeleine L’Engle -- A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet

David Eddings -- The Belgariad (ages 11+)

David Feintuch -- Midshipman’s Hope (series of 7)

Raymond E. Feist -- Magician

Ian Flemming -- James Bond books (ages teen +)

C.S. Forester -- Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (Beat to Quarters is great)

Dick Francis -- private investigations involving British horse racing

David Gemmell -- Waylander (heroic fantasy)

Frank Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey -- Cheaper by the Dozen

Fred Gipson -- Old Yeller, Savage Sam

Chris Heimerdinger -- Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites (series)

James Herriot -- All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Things Wise and Wonderful, The Lord God Made Them All

S.E. Hinton -- The Outsiders, Tex, Rumble Fish (teen+)

Geoffrey Household -- Rogue Male (ages 11+)

Rudyard Kipling -- The Jungle Book

Ralph Moody -- Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers

Richard Peck -- On the Wings of Heroes

Willard Price -- Underwater Adventure, Arctic Adventure

Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein

Chris Stewart -- Killbox, Shattered Bone, the Great and Terrible series (1st is The Brothers: Prologue)

H.G. Wells -- The Invisible Man


Girl age – 12

Louissa May Alcott -- A Long Fatal Love Chase

Judy Blume -- Tiger Eyes,

Madeleine Brent -- Moonraker’s Bride, Merlin’s Keep

James Hilton -- Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Madeleine L’Engle -- A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Robin McKinley -- Beauty, The Blue Sword, The Hero and the Crown, Door in the
Hedge

Mary Stewart -- Nine Coaches Waiting

Corrie Ten Boom -- The Hiding Place


Girl – age 9

William H. Armstrong -- Sounder

Avi -- The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson -- Peter and the Starcatchers (series)

Frances Hodson Burnett -- The Secret Garden

Carol Ryrie Brink -- Caddie Woodlawn

P.W. Catanese -- The Thief and the Beanstalk

Gertrude Chandler -- The Boxcar Children

Gennifer Choldenko -- Al Capone Does My Shirts

Beverly Cleary -- The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Ribsy,

Eoin Colfer -- The Artemis Fowl series

Roald Dahl -- The Twits, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, George’s Marvelous Machine, The BFG

Kate DiCamillo -- Because of Winn-Dixie

Julie Andrews Edwards -- Mandy

Nancy Farmer -- A Girl Named Disaster

John D. Fitzgerald -- The Great Brain (series)

Frank Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey -- Cheaper by the Dozen

Shannon Hale -- Princess Academy

Carl Hiaasen -- Hoot and other books

M.M. Kaye -- The Ordinary Princess

Jim Kjelguard -- Big Red

Kirby Larson -- Hattie Big Sky

Lois Lowry -- Number the Stars

Robin McKinley -- Beauty

Mary Norton -- The Borrowers

Richard Peck -- The Teacher’s Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts, Fair Weather,
Here Lies the Librarian

Wilson Rawls -- Summer of the Monkeys, Where the Red Fern Grows

Kate Douglas Wiggin -- Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Laura Ingalls Wilder -- The Little House on the Prairie series


Happy Summer Reading!