Summer Reading For Simply Everyone

 Elementary

Kids this age can read alone, but may prefer books they can’t quite read on their own. A good solution is reading aloud with a grown-up, balanced by time (before bed?) to read to themselves. Make them an irresistible deal - even reluctant readers may read if it keeps them up another half-hour!

This is also a good age for series books, especially for reluctant readers, where familiarity breeds contentment!

Nate the Great - Marjorie Weinman

First of a series about a little boy detective and his dog.

Amelia Bedelia - Peggy Parish

The first book in a hilarious series about Amelia Bedelia, who’s great at baking, but takes housekeeping instructions literally. When dusting the furniture and drawing the drapes, she uses a box of dusting powder and drawing paper! Peggy Parish herself is dead now, but Herman Parish carries on the family tradition.

The Chicken Pox Panic is from Beverly Lewis’s Cul-De-Sac Kids, a series of short books (under eighty pages) with great story lines and fun titles, and it's a fast read, too.

Dreams On Ice is the first book in Beverly Lewis's "Girls Only!" series; its story about eleven-year-old ice skater Olivia and her Olympic dreams will appeal to a slightly older reader, who may want to read the rest of the series to meet other girls who compete in Olympic sports while dreaming of gold medals.

Mummies in the Morning and Tonight on the Titanic , from The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne, sneak in some history along with entertainment, as do all the titles in this series. For more factual information about the titles' subjects, there are Magic Tree House study guides available.

With Love, Little Red Hen - Alma Flor Ada

Don’t let the picture book format fool you - even big kids love this book of letters written by storybook characters. Look for Ada’s Dear Peter Rabbit and Yours Truly, Goldilocks, too, then have your child and a friend write to each other as characters from their favorite book.

Also big for summer reading - books with recipes to try, directions to make something, games to play, or other added-value activities. Here are some we like:

Grandfather Tang’s Story - Ann Tompert

This book (also picture book format) explains Chinese tangrams and has a diagram that can be photocopied, cut into tans, and used to reproduce the book’s tangram stories.

Pink Paper Swans - Virginia Kroll

This multi-cultural story for younger kids includes directions for an origami swan. Kids who like this might enjoy The Usborne Book of Origami, with directions for everything from jumping frogs to noise makers!

The Usborne Book of Hair Braiding is another fun Usborne title. Slumber party, anyone?

Baseball , World War II , and Titanic are just three of DK Publishing’s Eyewitness books, which appeal to reluctant readers of all ages through fascinating photographs and snippets of information.

And finally...

The Math Chef, by Joan D'Amico, teaches kids math skills while they make stuff to eat. What’s not to love? If it had been around when I was young, maybe I’d actually understand fractions!

-Betty Winslow

Betty Winslow is a writer and school librarian from Bowling Green, Ohio.   Her writing has appeared in many places, among them FamilyFun, Christian Library Journal, Guideposts, Writer's Digest, and six anthologies (so far). 

Preschool

Elementary

Older Kids

Adults