Summer’s out and one thing that is essential to stave off the Summer brain drain is to keep your little kids reading all Summer long. For rising 3rd to 7th graders, especially, it is important for them to have at least one chapter book they’re reading at all times. That way, during long car trips, times when they’re ‘bored’ or taking a computer or electronics break, they will have a book already on hand to go read.
Hopefully, they can get into the book and enjoy it enough that they look forward to reading it. It took our family a long time to get our son to get into reading chapter books (read how we did it here) but once we did, we realized the key was to get a book that he could relate to with characters close to his age.
My youngest kids attend a school that specializes in classical eduation; e.g, reading classics, studying early civilizations, memorizing prose etc. Here is a list of books that my rising 4th grader’s teacher sent her off with but I added a few extra ones to include diversity in culture and characters for a mix.
Hope you can discover a book for you school aged Summer Learner!
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
The Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan
The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla
Viking Adventure by Clyde Robert Bulla
The American Girl History Mysteries
Three Tales of My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
The Skin I’m In by Sharon Flake
All-of-a-Kind Family Series by Sydney Taylor
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Winged Watchman by Hilda Van Stockum
The Magic Tree House Books by Mary Pope Osborne
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann D. Wyss
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White
Holes by Louis Sachar
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Mary Poppins Series by P. L. Travers
Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene
The Hardy Boys by David L. Robbins
Good luck getting your little readers to turn into lifelong lovers of books.