Make this your family’s best summer of reading ever with these free summer reading lists! We want to help you build a culture of reading in your home with titles you can trust to uphold your family’s values. That’s why we’ve put together these book lists with a dozen recommendations for every grade level to keep your kids busy reading this summer. Grab the book lists in printable form here along with some fun tracker sheets.
Kindergarten
- Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
- Corduroy by Don Freeman
- The Complete Brambly Hedge Collection by Jill Barklem
- Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
- The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
- Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena
- Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban
- A Little More Beautiful by Sarah Mackenzie
- Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
- Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodinka
- Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion
- The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
First Grade
- Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik
- Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel
- Jesus, Our True Friend by Sally Lloyd-Jones
- Billy and Blaze by C. W. Anderson
- Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
- Come On, Rain! by Karen Hesse
- This Is My Home, This Is My School by Jonathan Bean
- Tales of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
- A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond
- While Everyone Is Sleeping by Sarah Mackenzie
- Abraham Lincoln by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire
- One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey
Second Grade
- A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
- My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
- George Washington by Ingri and Edgar Parin D’Aulaire
- The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dagliesh
- The Secret Garden of George Washington Carver by Gene Barretta
- Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
- Building Our House by Jonathan Bean
- Edison: The Mystery of the Missing Mouse Treasure by Torben Kuhlmann
- A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams
- Our Friendly Farmhouse by Melissa Ferguson
- When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant
- Greg’s Microscope by Millicent E. Selsam
Third Grade
- Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
- Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Florence and Richard Atwater
- The Illustrated Pilgrim’s Progress by Helen L. Taylor
- Chronicles of Wonder: The Story-Formed Life of C. S. Lewis by Leah Boden
- Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Heidi by Johanna Spyri
- Vision of Beauty: The Story of Sarah Breedlove Walker by Kathryn Lasky
- Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
- The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
- Eric’s Greatest Race by Tim Challies
- Secret of the Hidden Scrolls: The Beginning by M. J. Thomas
- The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
Fourth Grade
- Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
- The Green Ember by S. D. Smith
- Brave Princess Aina: The Courageous Heart of Sarah Forbes Bonetta by Leah Boden
- The Borrowers by Mary Norton
- Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
- The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
- Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
- The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford
- Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein
- The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
- The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White
- Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls
Fifth Grade
- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien
- The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
- Sounder by William H. Armstrong
- The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
- King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green
- Beneath the Swirling Sky by Carolyn Leiloglou
- Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Stewart
- Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
- Einstein: The Fantastic Journey of a Mouse through Space and Time by Torben Kuhlmann
Sixth Grade
- Johnny Tremain by Esther Hoskins Forbes
- Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
- On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson
- The Ocean of Truth: The Story of Sir Isaac Newton by Joyce McPherson
- Beyond Mulberry Glen by Millie Florence
- Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
- A Chameleon, a Boy, and a Quest by Jennifer Myhre
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
- Black Ships Before Troy by Rosemary Sutcliff
- Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
- Redwall by Brian Jacques
Seventh Grade
- Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
- A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
- Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Latham
- Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
- Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
- Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
- The Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers
- Wonder by R. J. Palacio
- The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- Watership Down by Richard Adams
Eighth Grade
- The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
- The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
- Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss
- Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates
- Out of Darkness: The Story of Louis Braille by Russell Freedman
- The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
- The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
- The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
- The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien by John Hendrix
Ninth Grade
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
- Once a Queen by Sarah Arthur
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton
- Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
- Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King
- Through Gates of Splendor by Elizabeth Elliot
- Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
- Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
- 10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) About Christianity by Rebecca McLaughlin
Tenth Grade
- Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
- The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution by Natalie S. Bober
- The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
- The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
- The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
- Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris
- The Once and Future King by T. H. White
Eleventh Grade
- The Call of the Wild by Jack London
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
- Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
- Henry V by William Shakespeare
- Emma by Jane Austen
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
- God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew
- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
- Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
- The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis
- Night by Elie Wiesel
Twelfth Grade
- Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- 1984 by George Orwell
- More Than a Carpenter by Josh and Sean McDowell
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
- The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis
- All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
- The Call by Os Guinness
- Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Don’t forget to grab your FREE summer reading printable to get these book lists in printable form along with some fun pages to track your summer reading.
Need even more book recommendations?
Check out these articles for some more of our summer favorites.
- 10 Favorite Picture Books for Summer
- 10 Favorite Chapter Book Read Alouds for Summer
- 10 Best Books to Encourage Your Heart as a Homeschool Mom
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