From ShelfTalker: A Children's Bookseller's Blog, June 16.
I am impressed. Last week when I asked for summer reading suggestions, 31 people offered some truly wonderful suggestions. It would seem that just about everyone suggested The Hunger Games — clearly this was the most popular book on the list. This book is a smart choice to have a reading list because the kids will be excited to see on the list and even happier to read it. Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was equally popular. There were 87 books on the list, and 57% of the authors were women. This is the striking difference with the school lists I've gotten this year. I'm not sure what this means other than it makes me happy. So often these lists are the "classics" and that usually means male authors aside from Austen and the Brontes.
This list is exciting. It's full of great modern characters that kids can relate to, and isn't this what a reading list is supposed to do? Laurie Halse Anderson's Chains was another book populating many lists. Every book by John Green was on the list more than once. Finally, someone is paying attention to young adult males who actually likes realistic fistion. Historical fiction was nicely represented as well. Sometimes what's lacking in school lists is balance. It's either too skewed to to classics with nothing published after 1970, or it's a land of science fiction and fantasy.
Our small sampling made me wish I was a student at this school of reading. I would have been overwhelmed by great choices and read far more than the required number. Please feel free to comment on the list, if there's something fabulous that you feel is missing. We can continue to grow the best summer reading list, ever.
And here's the list (alphabetical by author):
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
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Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
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Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
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Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
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Feed by M.T. Anderson
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Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
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Foundation by Isaac Asimov
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Freeze Frame by Heidi Ayarbe
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The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
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On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
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Nick of Time by Ted Bell
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What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell
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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
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Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
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Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan
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A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth Bunce
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All The Broken Pieces by Ann Burg
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Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
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Graceling by Kristin Cashore
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Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas
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Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn
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Hidden Voices: The Orphan Musicians of Venice by Pat Lowery Collins
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The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
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The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
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Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
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A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
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The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
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The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
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My Family and Other Animals by Gerard Durrell
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Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher
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If I Stay by Gayle Forman
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The Women's Room by Marilyn French
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Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
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The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
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The Patron Saint of Butterflies by Cecilia Galante
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Inventing Elliott by Graham Gardner
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Lord of the Flies by William Golding
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Gone by Michael Grant
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Paper Towns by John Green
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Looking for Alaska by John Green
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An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
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Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
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The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
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Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
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Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
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Need by Carrie Jones
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Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
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Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles
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A Separate Peace by John Knowles
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Savvy by Ingrid Law
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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
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Guardian by Julius Lester
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Inexcusable by Chris Lynch
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The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch
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Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
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Life of Pi by Yann Martel
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Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass
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A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass
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When She Was Good by Norma Fox Mazer
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Wake and Fade by Lisa McMann
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Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
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A Step from Heaven by An Na
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The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson
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Evermore by Alyson Noël
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Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Beals Patillo
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The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
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Luna by Julie Anne Peters
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Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
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The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
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Nation by Terry Pratchett
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My Name Is Jason. Mine Too. by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin
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Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
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Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff
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The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
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Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary Schmidt
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Anything by David Sedaris
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I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
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Peak by Roland Smith
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Somebody by Nancy Springer
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Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples
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Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
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Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
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The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
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Collected Stories by Eudora Welty
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Impossible by Nancy Werlin
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The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
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Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
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The Thirteenth Child by Patricia Wrede
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American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
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Sweethearts by Sara Zarr
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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak