Summer Reading Lists – Part 1: Preschool & Elementary School

Reading for pleasure during the school year can be challenging when kids come home with hours of busy work (homework) and they’re booked solid with extracurriculars (sports, musical  instruments, and clubs). It’s tough to compete with teachers, and well, life! So during the summer, if you plan this out at the start of the summer, introduce the LOVE OF READING to your kids. Set up a family calendar where you list what they’ll be reading each week.  Have the kids decide when they’ll read (and finish!) each book. That way they won’t reach the end of the summer with a stack full of books that haven’t been opened!

Use this time to choose some classic books, the books that every kid SHOULD READ!  Like ROIs (return on investments), let’s make sure they get the most bang for the buck with their reading.  Here’s a list of books that I’ve compiled based on my kids’ favorites and some authorities in the literary world. What books were your favorites?

PRESCHOOL
The Giving Tree (Silverstein) 
How Much is a Million? (Schwartz) 
There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (Taback) 
Where the Wild Things Are (Sendak) 
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Viorst) 
Velveteen Rabbit (Williams)  
The Big Book for Peace (Dutton)

LOWER ELEMENTARY
The Cricket in Times Square (Seden)  
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (Coerr)  
Where the Sidewalk Ends (Silverstein) 
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Dahl)  
Fables (Lobel)  
The Voyages of Dr. Doolittle (Lofting)  
Ralph S. Mouse (Cleary)  
Encyclopedia Brown (Sobol)  

UPPER ELEMENTARY
Island of the Blue Dolphins (O’Dell) 
A Wrinkle in Time (L’Engle)  
Dear Mr. Henshaw (Cleary)  
Nancy Drew (Keene)  
Hardy Boys (Dixon)  
Boxcar Children (Warner)  
Harry Potter (Rowling) 
Secret Garden (Burnett)  
The Book of Three (Alexander)