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):

  1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

  2. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

  3. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

  4. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

  5. Feed by M.T. Anderson

  6. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

  7. Foundation by Isaac Asimov

  8. Freeze Frame by Heidi Ayarbe

  9. The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

  10. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer

  11. Nick of Time by Ted Bell

  12. What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

  13. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

  14. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

  15. Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan

  16. A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth Bunce

  17. All The Broken Pieces by Ann Burg

  18. Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter

  19. Graceling by Kristin Cashore

  20. Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas

  21. Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn

  22. Hidden Voices: The Orphan Musicians of Venice by Pat Lowery Collins

  23. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

  24. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

  25. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

  26. A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

  27. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

  28. The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

  29. My Family and Other Animals by Gerard Durrell

  30. Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher

  31. If I Stay by Gayle Forman

  32. The Women's Room by Marilyn French

  33. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

  34. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

  35. The Patron Saint of Butterflies by Cecilia Galante

  36. Inventing Elliott by Graham Gardner

  37. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

  38. Gone by Michael Grant

  39. Paper Towns by John Green

  40. Looking for Alaska by John Green

  41. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

  42. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

  43. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

  44. The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

  45. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

  46. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

  47. Need by Carrie Jones

  48. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

  49. Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles

  50. A Separate Peace by John Knowles

  51. Savvy by Ingrid Law

  52. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

  53. Guardian by Julius Lester

  54. Inexcusable by Chris Lynch

  55. The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch

  56. Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

  57. Life of Pi by Yann Martel

  58. Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass

  59. A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass

  60. When She Was Good by Norma Fox Mazer

  61. Wake and Fade by Lisa McMann

  62. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

  63. A Step from Heaven by An Na

  64. The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson

  65. Evermore by Alyson Noël

  66. Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Beals Patillo

  67. The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

  68. Luna by Julie Anne Peters

  69. Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

  70. The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

  71. Nation by Terry Pratchett

  72. My Name Is Jason. Mine Too. by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin

  73. Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

  74. Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff

  75. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

  76. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary Schmidt

  77. Anything by David Sedaris

  78. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

  79. Peak by Roland Smith

  80. Somebody by Nancy Springer

  81. Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples

  82. Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

  83. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

  84. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

  85. Collected Stories by Eudora Welty

  86. Impossible by Nancy Werlin

  87. The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

  88. Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff

  89. The Thirteenth Child by Patricia Wrede

  90. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

  91. Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

  92. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak