Summer Reading List
Reading can be one of the many fun activities children choose to fill their summer time. ResGrades 6-8earch has shown it is also much more! Children who participate in public library summer reading programs make achievement leaps during the summer and score higher on fall reading achievement tests. The books on this list come highly recommended by kid readers from all over the country and may also be available in eBook, audio book, braille, and large print formats. This summer, take your child to participate in the summer programs happening at your library.
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team
by Christina Soontornvat
CANDLEWICK, 2020
ISBN: 9781536209457
This multi-award-winning nonfiction book tracks the survival story of a Thai boys’ soccer team, showing both the challenges facing rescuers and the bravery and ingenuity of those trapped in a flooded cave.
Almost American Girl: An Illustrated Memoir
by Robin Ha
BALZER + BRAY/HARPER ALLEY, 2020
ISBN: 9780062685100
A graphic novel memoir recounting the author’s experience as a middle-schooler uprooted from her home in South Korea to live in Alabama, and the power of the arts to connect us.
Amari and the Night Brothers
by B. B. Alston
BALZER & BRAY, 2021
ISBN: 9780062975164
After Amari’s brother disappears, she is nominated to train at the secret government organization he worked for. At this camp, Amari learns she is a magician and trains to be a junior agent for the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. First in a series.
Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids
Edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith
HEARTDRUM, 2021
ISBN: 9780062869944
An anthology of intersecting stories by Native authors about families from Nations across the U.S. and Canada as they gather at an intertribal powwow to honor Native traditions.
Beetle & the Hollowbones
by Aliza Layne
ATHENEUM, 2020
ISBN: 9781534441538
Teen goblin and witch-in-training Beetle uses her wits and magical powers to save her friend Blob Ghost from being destroyed by her ex–best friend Kat’s aunt’s dastardly plans in this rollicking graphic novel.
Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls
by Kaela Rivera
HARPERCOLLINS, 2021
ISBN: 9780062947550
Cece walks the fine line between humans and creaturas (powerful spirits) on her search to rescue her sister from an evil spirit. Traveling a dangerous desert, Cece finds a kind spirit to help her on the way.
Chirp
by Kate Messner
BLOOMSBURY, 2020
ISBN: 9781547602810
Mia moves to Vermont to help her grandmother with her cricket farm. She joins a STEM and Ninja Warrior camp and starts to become more empowered to deal with sexual harassment from a gymnastics coach.
Efrén Divided
by Ernesto Cisneros
QUILL TREE BOOKS, 2020
ISBN: 9780062881687
When 12-year-old Efrén’s mother is sent back to Mexico by U.S. authorities, his life becomes increasingly difficult. Hope lives in Efrén’s heart as long as there’s a chance his family can be reunited.
Everything Sad Is Untrue
by Daniel Nayeri
LEVINE QUERIDO, 2020
ISBN: 9781646140008
Daniel, an Iranian refugee, struggles to fit in with his Oklahoma community. Through the lens of Scheherazade’s One Thousand and One Nights, Daniel weaves stories about his past.
Fighting Words
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
DIAL, 2020
ISBN: 9781984815682
Through a hard childhood, Della has always relied on her older sister, Suki. When their mom’s boyfriend does something awful, the sisters run away and must start a new life in a foster home, but their past still haunts them both.
From the Desk of Zoe Washington
by Janae Marks
KATHERINE TEGEN BOOKS, 2020
ISBN: 9780062875853
Zoe has a lot of things on her plate: an important internship at a bakery, which would help her get onto a kid’s baking television show, and secret communication with her father, who is imprisoned but may be innocent. Zoe must balance her baking with proving her father didn’t do the crime he was convicted of.
King and the Dragonflies
by Kacen Callender
SCHOLASTIC, 2020
ISBN: 9781338129335
King is convinced his brother who died has returned as a dragonfly. In confronting his grief, King also must navigate a changed relationship with his parents and evolving feelings for his best friend, the son of the town’s racist sheriff.
Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance
by Nikki Grimes
BLOOMSBURY, 2021
ISBN: 9781681199443
This collection of poems styled with the Golden Shovel poetic method uses the original works of female poets of the Harlem Renaissance coupled with new poems written by Grimes.
Root Magic
by Eden Royce
WALDEN POND, 2021
ISBN: 9780062899576
In 1963 South Carolina, Jez and her twin brother, Jay, begin to learn the legacy of their family: rootwork, Gullah Geechee folk magic.
Show Me a Sign
by Ann Clare LeZotte
SCHOLASTIC, 2020
ISBN: 9781338255812
The year is 1805, and eleven-year-old Mary lives in a small, isolated community where almost everyone is fluent in sign language. She’s unaware of the prejudices against Deaf people, until a stranger visits her town.
Starfish
by Lisa Fipps
NANCY PAULSEN BOOKS, 2021
ISBN: 9781984814500
A body-positive novel in verse about a middle-schooler, Ellie, who, with the help of her therapist, begins standing up for herself against those who bully Ellie for her size—including confronting the worst tormentor of all, her mother.
Tracking Pythons: The Quest to Catch an Invasive Predator and Save an Ecosystem
by Kate Messner
MILLBROOK, 2020
ISBN: 9781541557062
How do you catch an animal that is so good at hiding? You enlist the help of those you’ve already captured. Accompany researchers as they work to control the numbers of pythons in Florida in this book filled with photos, diagrams, and QR codes for online videos.
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The 2021 Summer Reading Book List was created by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). Titles on this list were selected by members of ALSC’s Quicklists Consulting Committee.