These Are the Books Your Kids Should Read This Summer

By Caroline Rogers
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Summer is prime time for reading. We like to spend summer’s long, hot days curled up with a book and immersed in an adventure. We bet your kids will too. Get the kiddos reading this summer with books that they won’t be able to put down. They’ll love these tales filled with journeys and hope and mysteries and heart. Many of these books are Newbery Honor Books and Newbery Medal winners, so you can be assured that your kids are getting quality stories well told. While you’re preparing your fall reading list, revisit a few of these fun stories alongside your kids this summer. The memorable books you loved growing up, including the classics, deserve a re-read every few years, don’t you think? Kids of all ages will love these stories so much they’ll want to pass them on to their young readers someday. Stock your kids’ libraries for summer, and they’ll be reading up a storm in no time. These books will help get your kids reading. It’s hard to resist these timeless (and timely) tales from across the spectrums of genre, perspective, and historical era. While reading these books, your kids’ imaginations will be moving at full speed, guaranteed.
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

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Buy it: $7.99, amazon.com

This immortal, candy-filled tale will transport you to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory alongside Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, Mike Teavee, and Charlie Bucket. Hijinks are guaranteed to ensue. Better add James and the Giant Peach, The BFG, and Matilda to that summer reading list too—you know, for good measure.

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The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

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Buy it: $7.99, amazon.com

This thrilling whodunit will have your kids re-reading it before summer is through. It’s hard to overstate what a fun book—and what a perfect introduction to mysteries—this is.

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Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

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Buy it: $18.99, amazon.com

Take our word for it: This book is easy to love. Take John Green’s word for it, too: “Eleanor & Park reminded me not just what it's like to be young and in love with a girl, but also what it's like to be young and in love with a book.” (The New York Times Book Review)

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The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

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Buy it: $16.95, amazon.com

This 2017 Newbery Medal Winner should be on your kids’ reading lists this summer. It’s about Luna, a 13-year-old girl who, after being fed moonlight instead of starlight, is filled with magic that emerges as she grows older.

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Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk

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Buy it: $16.99, amazon.com

This Pennsylvania-set tale is about compassion, justice, and courage in a small town facing the aftermath of two world wars. While it was published in 2016, it’s already being called a can't-miss classic.

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The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

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Buy it: $8.99, amazon.com

It’s the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread. Your kids will love getting lost in this thrilling, Newbery Medal-winning story of Despereaux Tilling (a mouse), Pea (a princess), Roscuro (a rat), and their legendary exploits.

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Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

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Buy it: $7.99, amazon.com

Told in verse, this story draws on Thanhha Lai’s childhood as a refugee. As Ha flees Vietnam to settle in Alabama, her family must undergo a year of extreme changes and powerful hopes.

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The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg

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Buy it: $7.99, amazon.com

Meet Epiphany Middle School’s sixth-grade Academic Bowl team, four students who know more than just the answers to competition questions.

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The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

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Buy it: $12.99, amazon.com

It’s about books. It’s about a young girl named Liesel Meminger. It’s a novel of the Holocaust narrated by Death. It’s also a moving masterpiece of young adult literature that everyone should read at least once.

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The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

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Buy it: $12.99, amazon.com

Tell your teenagers that they have to read the book before they see the movie. This moving story is about sixteen-year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster, Augustus Waters, and their battles with cancer. Green’s books Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and Paper Towns should be on their summer reading lists too.

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Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

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Buy it: $6.29, amazon.com

It’s the YA novel that needs no introduction, partly because no introduction could do it justice. Crack open the spine to explore Saachar’s wacky style and tangled tales of a school with no nineteenth floor. It’s a must for elementary school summer reading—as are the sequels,Wayside School is Falling DownandWayside School Gets A Little Stranger.

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Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

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Buy it: $10.99, amazon.com

They may have already seen the movie, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t read the book too. It’s about Maddy, a girl whose extreme allergies keep her inside, and Olly, her next-door neighbor.

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Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

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Buy it: $7.99, amazon.com

This classic is a touchstone of childhood literature. Don’t miss out on the tale of Billy, his two dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann, and their hunting adventures in the Ozarks.

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Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

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Buy it: $7.99, amazon.com

Once your kids start reading the Hatchet series, they won’t rest until they’ve read all five. Start with Hatchet, the first in the series, which is about a young boy struggling to survive in the wilderness after a plane crash.

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The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

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Buy it: $8.99, amazon.com

It’s so moving, parents will want to read this one too. Benjamin’s novel about the loss of a friend gets to the heart of grief and—eventually—hope.

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The Call of the Wild by Jack London

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Buy it: $4.95, amazon.com

The Call of the Wild still captivates readers over a century after it was first published. It tells the story of Buck, a dog that is stolen from his home, becomes a sled dog in Alaska, and eventually hears the call of the wild.

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Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

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Get to know Salamanca Tree Hiddle, Sal for short, as she tells her grandparents a story that interweaves with her own.

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Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley

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Buy it: $17.99, amazon.com

This extraordinary novel plots a story of love and loss, of a bookshop that brings two teenagers together in the wake of a missed connection and family tragedy.

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Flipped by Wendelin van Draanen

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Buy it: $9.99, amazon.com

Your kids will flip over this funny, romantic story of two eighth graders (both narrators in this tale) trying to find their way through a comedy of middle school errors.

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The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

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Buy it: $18.99, amazon.com

This fantasy novel tells the story of Aerin Dragon-Killer, a princess whose life takes unexpected turns as she defends her kingdom and becomes a legendary warrior. The Hero and the Crown is the prequel to McKinley’s The Blue Sword, another perfect summer read for your middle schoolers.

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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

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Buy it: $10.99, amazon.com

Start the Harry Potter series with your kids for a magical summer spent immersed in J.K. Rowling's wizarding world. Once you all start reading about the fantastical adventures of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and their friends at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, you’ll never want the series to end.

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Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush by Virginia Hamilton

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Buy it: $8.97, amazon.com

Start with Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush, and then read everything else Virginia Hamilton ever wrote. Meet Tree; her brother, Dab; and their mother, Vy; as well as mysterious Brother Rush and the magic mirror.

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A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’Engle

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Buy it: $8.54, amazon.com

Summer is for getting lost in Madeleine L’Engle’s novels. Read A Wrinkle in Time with your kids, and don’t miss A Ring of Endless Light either, which tells the story of Vicky Austin and her family spending the summer on a tiny island with their grandfather.

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My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

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Buy it: $17.99, amazon.com

A boy and his falcon are the subjects of this coming-of-age tale, the first in a trilogy that includes On the Far Side of the Mountain and Frightful's Mountain.

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Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

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Buy it: $7.99, amazon.com

This classic tale of survival introduces readers to Karana, a young girl who lives alone in the Pacific after being stranded on the Island of the Blue Dolphins.

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Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan

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Buy it: $5.59, amazon.com

When tragedy strikes their ranch in Mexico, Esperanza and her mother flee to California and learn how to begin again.

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Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

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Buy it: $8, amazon.com

Don’t miss this story of Jeffrey Lionel “Maniac” Magee, a fearless orphan who brings a whole town together through his athletic abilities and his indifference to the racial boundaries the community has constructed around the two ends of town.

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On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

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Buy it: $6.99, amazon.com

If your kids have already read Little House on the Prairie, it’s time for all the rest of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. They’ll be transported to the frontier—via covered wagon—to adventure and family life far from home.

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Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls

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Buy it: $6.99, amazon.com

What happens when you find a tree full of monkeys in the Ozark Mountains? Find out alongside fourteen-year-old Jay Berry Lee in this Wilson Rawls classic about one transformative Oklahoma summer.

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The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander

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Buy it: $34.95, amazon.com

Get your elementary or middle schooler hooked on this fantasy series, and they’ll be immersed all summer long. The Chronicles of Prydain follows the adventures of Taran, an assistant pig-keeper, through five gripping novels, The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, and The High King.

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Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt

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Buy it: $6.99, amazon.com

This story introduces readers to Jethro Creighton, a boy who grows up in southern Illinois during the Civil War and experiences the political and economic turbulence of the conflict.

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Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien