Summer Reading Recommendations
Read Alouds are wonderful: (1st-5th)
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To introduce your children to great literature that is beyond their personal reading capacity.
To develop within your children a life-long love of reading. (Even though they may not be able to read a good book on their own, when you
read great literature to them, it creates a thirst to read. They begin to think, "I love books! One day I'm going to read books like this!")
To expand your children's vocabulary.
To build listening skills--including the ability to visualize the meaning of spoken words.
To develop an "ear" for good oral reading.
To develop oral reading skills. (Having heard quality oral reading done by you, your children will imitate you.)
To give you and your children a context for sharing mutually significant times together.
Grade Level
Pre-K
Read Aloud Recommendations
The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter
Milly Molly Mandy by Joyce Brisley
Poems and Prayers for the Very Young by Eloise Wilkins
A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
James Herriot's Treasury for Children by James Herriot
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Bill Martin Jr.
Dr. Seuss books
Independent Reading
In addition:
-I Can Read Books - Level 1
-Scholastic has a variety of books and box sets that cover
a variety of sight words if your child is ready for this step
in reading.
Bob Jones Press has excellent books that encourage the
students in their faith. There website is:
https://www.bjupress.com/category/ages6to7-cs
*See Sonlight's list for more recommendations:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/sonlight
Kindergarten
Mother Goose (any version)
Now We Are Six by A. A. Milne
Use the 'book wizard' on Scholastic.com to find books on
your child's DRA level to read independently.
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (First
graders should not read this one because they will read it
during the school year.)
Assist your child with book selections at your public library
for guided reading, independent reading and additional
read alouds.
Carrot Soup John Segal
Clap Your Hands Lorinda Bryan Cauley
Click, Clack, Moo Doreen Cronin
Corduroy Don Freeman
Bob Jones Press has excellent books that encourage the
students in their faith. There website is:
https://www.bjupress.com/category/ages6to7-cs
Goodnight Moon Margaret Wise Brown
The Great Fuzz Frenzy Janet Stevens
The Little Engine That Could Watty Piper
Dr. Seuss, Curious George, Clifford & I Can Read books
*See Sonlight's list for more recommendations:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/sonlight
First Grade
Skippack School by Marguerite de Angeli
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater
Dragon Howl by Vanessa Rouse
The Tinfoil Girl by Olivia Miller
The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson
Henry Huggins (Henry Huggins, #1) by Beverly Cleary
The Twenty one Balloons by William Pene du bois
Students may enjoy reading books from previous lists.
Use the 'book wizard' on Scholastic.com to find books on
your child's DRA level to read independently.
Assist your child with book selections at your public library
for guided reading, independent reading and additional
read alouds.
Bob Jones Press has excellent books that encourage the
students in their faith. There website is:
https://www.bjupress.com/category/ages6to7-cs
*See Sonlight's list for more recommendations:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/sonlight
Second
Grade
Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Gray
Stuart Little by E.B. White
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
The Little Riders by Margaretha Shemin
The Apprentice by Pilar Molina Llorente
The School Story by Andrew Clements
Tales of Robin Hood by Tony Allan
Kildee House by Rutherford Montgomery
Strawberry Girl by Louis Lenski
Half Magic by Edward Eager
Students may enjoy reading books from previous lists.
Use the 'book wizard' on Scholastic.com to find books on
your child's DRA level to read independently.
Assist your child with book selections at your public library
for guided reading, independent reading and additional
read alouds.
Bob Jones Press has excellent books that encourage the
students in their faith. There website is:
https://www.bjupress.com/category/ages6to7-cs
Sugar Creek Gang Series
*See Sonlight's list for more recommendations:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/sonlight
Third &
Fourth
Grade
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Fisher
Students may enjoy reading books from previous lists.
Carry on Mr. Bowditch by Jean Latham
The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
The Railroad Children by Edith Nesbit
Just David by Eleanor Poter
Use the 'book wizard' on Scholastic.com to find books on
your child's DRA level to read independently.
Provide opportunities for your child to make selections at
your public library for independent reading.
George Washington's World by Genevieve Foster
At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald
The Candymakers by Wendy Mass
Bob Jones Press has excellent books that encourage the
students in their faith. There website is:
https://www.bjupress.com/category/ages6to7-cs
Thee, Hannah! by Marguerite de Angeli
Moccasin Trail by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen
In Search of the Source: A First Encounter w/ God's Word
by Neil T Anderson
Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfield
Little Britches by Ralph Moody
Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
*See Sonlight's list for more recommendations:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/sonlight
Fifth
Grade
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Freckles by Gene Stratton Porter
Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright
Students may enjoy reading books from previous lists.
Provide opportunities for your child to make selections at
your public library for independent reading.
Bob Jones Press has excellent books that encourage the
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
students in their faith. There website is:
https://www.bjupress.com/category/ages6to7-cs
Daughter of the Mountains by Louise S. Rankin
Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine
Journey to Jo'burg: A south African Story by Beverley Naidoo
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Treasures of the Snow by patricia St. John
Freedom's Cause and The Young Carthaginian by G.A. Henty
Trailblazer books
*See Sonlight's list for more recommendations:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/sonlight
Summer Reading Recommendations
Bob Jones Press has excellent books that encourage the students in their faith.
There website is: https://www.bjupress.com/category/ages6to7-cs
Sixth
Grade
Augustine Came to Kent by Barbara Willard
The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert DeJong
Son of Charlemagne by Barbara Willard
Men of Iron by Howard Pyle
The Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
*See Sonlight's list for more recommendations:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/sonlight
* Students may enjoy reading books from previous lists.
Provide opportunities for your child to make selections at your public library for independent reading.
Seventh &
Eight
Grade
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
Kisses From Kate by Katie Davis
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan
Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman
God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew
The Arrow Over the Door by Joseph Bruchac
The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia by Esther Hautzig
The Heart Strangely Warmed by Louise A. Vernon
Mary Jones and Her Bible by Mary E. Ropes
The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy
*See Sonlight's list for more recommendations:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/sonlight
* Students may enjoy reading books from previous lists.
Provide opportunities for your child to make selections at your public library for independent reading.