Friday, June 17, 2016

7 Summer Reading Suggestions from Young Readers


Ah, if only I could be twelve years old again.

On second thought, I take that back. I don't really want to re-live junior high. What I do want is to be able to have summers off again, as I did when I was twelve. Even though I had lots of chores and was responsible for my younger brother and sister, at age twelve I had time to READ, READ, READ all summer long.
Photo credit: Spirit-Fire via VisualHunt.com / CC BY
In contrast, lately I haven't even been able to keep up with the 1-2 books per month our Not for Kids Only Book Club (sponsored by Anderson's Bookshops) reads. So there's no way I could come up with an extensive reading list like the one Mary Ann shared on Monday.

One of the things keeping me busy is teaching. This week, I have the pleasure of teaching a camp called "Promising Young Writers" for 11-14 year-olds at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove, Illinois. Since I haven't been reading enough lately to come up with my own summer reading recommendations, I decided to ask my students for theirs. Here are seven of the titles they suggested, in alphabetical order:
  • The Anybodies series by N.E. Bode (HarperTrophy)
  • Divergent series by Veronica Roth (Katherine Tegen Books)
  • Half Upon a Time trilogy by James Riley (Aladdin)
  • Icebreaker (first in a trilogy) by Lian Tanner (Feiwel & Friends)
  • Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children series by Ransom Riggs (Quirk Books)
  • Shadow on the Mountain by Margi Preus (Amulet Books)
  • The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (Dial Books)

The only book I've read on this list is Divergent, which was one of our Book Club picks. The War that Saved My Life has been on my To-Read list for ages. It, too, was a Book Club pick. I hope to get to it soon.

How about you, Readers? Do you have any summer reading recommendations? 

And if you're looking for more suggestions, check out the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) Summer Reading Lists or the School Library Journal Article "12 Tween Titles to Add to Your Summer Reading Lists."

Don't forget--it's Poetry Friday. This week's round-up is over at Carol's Corner.

Happy writing, and READING!
Carmela
  

2 comments:

Books4Learning said...

Thanks for this list. I have only a read a few on it. I will check the others out.

Mary Ann Rodman said...

I always ask my Young Author's Camp writers to tell me the lest book they read and their favorite book or series. That's I learned about Divergent several years ago, and that Jennifer Holm is a favorite author.