Summer Reading Lists

Every year around the world schools give their recommendations for the books students should read during the summer. These lists are as varied as there are schools. Here are some links to the top recommended reading lists from around the globe. Try reading some of the books on these lists. Later we will post the books we recommend for our MIST students.

One key to children's reading success is making their reading experience entertaining, relaxing, and enjoyable. Allow children to choose their own reading materials and be aware of what their reading interests are. Help them find books that pique their interests. Below are information about and links to many reading lists that identify high-quality titles and serve many different audiences and purposes.

Notable Children's Books An annual list compiled by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of ALA.

Top Ten Lists of "All-Time Classics" ALSC created this list of classics that parents and children can read together for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America for national KidsDay (August 2001). There is one list for preschool to age 8 and one list for ages 8-12.

100 best paperbacks A list created by ALSC for Reading is Fundamental (RIF).

Newbery Award Books. Each year, ALSC chooses the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children from books released in the previous year.

Caldecott Award Books. Each year, ALSC chooses the most distinguished American picture book for children released in the previous year.

Pura Belpré Award Books. Each year, ALSC chooses two works (one for narrative and one for illustration) that best portray, affirm, and celebrate the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.

Coretta Scott King Award Books Each year, the Coretta Scott King Task Force of the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table chooses two distinguished books, one by an author of African descent and one from an illustrator of African descent, that promote an understanding and appreciation of the "American Dream."

Robert F. Sibert Award Books. Each year, ALSC chooses the most distinguished informational book published during the preceding year.

Mildred Batchelder Award Books. Each year, ALSC honors an American publisher for a children's book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, and subsequently translated into English and published in the United States.

Booklist Editor's Choice Lists including "Books for Youth" compiled by editors of ALA's review magazine, Booklist; with grade levels suggested.

The Teen Read Week website includes a list of resources for materials of interest to teens.
An extensive list of all of the high-school-age reading lists compiled by members of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of (ALA).

Outstanding Books for the College Bound
There are also numerous published lists. A recent one is The New Books Kids Like, edited by Sharon Deeds and Catherine Chastain, Prepared for the Association for Library Service to Children (Chicago: ALA, 2001). This organizes frequently requested materials around 44 topics and indicates grade levels within those topics.

Finally, there are numerous web resources available through Great Web Sites for Kids. See entries under "Literature and Language"