ShelfTalker's Summer Reading List

Compiled by Josie Levitt -- Publishers Weekly, 6/16/2009 7:40:00 AM

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