Indiana Department of Education

2007 Summer Reading List

Summer offers a perfect time to read for pleasure whether relaxing at home or on vacation. An added benefit is that lots of reading during the summer helps a reader become a better reader. This list may be shared with teachers, parents or sent home with children.

This list provides lots of good choices for summer reading across all grade levels. There is something here for everyone, but it is not an all inclusive list. Many of the authors on the list have written other interesting works. Many titles are the first in a series that may spur readers into reading the other books about the same characters.

Parents and families will want to preview every title for appropriateness of content, interest, and reading level before selecting it for summer reading for their children.

Primary

(Preschool - Grade 3)

Fiction, Folklore, and Poetry (Preschool - Grade 3)

Abe Lincoln’s Hat – Martha Brenner, Donald Cook (illus.)

Achoo! Bang! Crash! The Noisy Alphabet – Ross MacDonald (illus.)

An Adventure with Captain Brainstorm! (Bill Cosby's Little Bill series) - Fracaswell Hyman, Robert Powers (illus.)

Amelia Bedelia (series) - Peggy Parish

Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow [poetry riddles] – Joyce Sidman, Beth Krommes (illus.)

Clifford the Big Red Dog (series) – Norman Bridwell [Indiana author]

Curious George Visits the Library (Curious George series) – H. A. Rey, Margret Rey

Danitra Brown Leaves Town (Danitra Brown series) - Nikki Grimes, Floyd Cooper (illus.)

Dona Flor: A Tall Tale about a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart – Raul Colon (illus.)

Dooby Dooby Moo (series) – Doreen Cronin, Betsy Lewin (illus.)

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (series) – Laura Joffe Numeroff, Felicia Bond (illus.)

John Philip Duck – Patricia Polacco

Junie B. Jones (series) – Barbara Park

Lincoln’s Legacy: Blast to the Past (time travel series) - Stacia Deutsch, Rhody Cohon, David Wenzel (illus.)

Maya & Miguel: Chapter Book #1 Neighborhood Friends (series) – Crystal Velasquez

My Lucky Day – Keiko Kasza

Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC – June Sobel, Henry Cole (illus.)

Sing a Song of Popcorn: Every Child’s Book of Poems – Beatrice Schenk de Regniers and Others

Skippyjon Jones (series) – Judy Schachner

The Summer Camp Mystery (Boxcar Children Mystery series) - Gertrude Chandler Warner, Hodges Soileau

Summer of the Sea Serpent (Magic Tree House series) - Mary Pope Osborne, Sal Murdocca

Summer Reading Is Killing Me! (Time Warp Trio series) - Jon Scieszka, Lane Smith

Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt – Deborah Hopkinson, James Ransome (illus.)

Treasure Island #2: Off to Sea (Easy Reader Classics series) – Robert Louis Stevenson, Catherine Nichols (adapter), Sally Wern Comport (illus.)

Your Favorite Seuss: A Baker’s Dozen by the One and Only Dr. Seuss – Dr. Seuss, Molly Leach (designer)

Nonfiction and Biography (Preschool - Grade 3)

Abe Lincoln: The Boy Who Loved Books – Kay Winters, Nancy Carpenter (illus.)

About Reptiles: A Guide for Children – Cathryn P. Sill

Actual Size – Steve Jenkins

Ant, Ant, Ant! An Insect Chant – April Pulley Sayre [Indiana author]

Apple Fractions – Jerry Pallotta and Rob Bolster

Barnum Brown: Dinosaur Hunter – David Sheldon

The Boy on Fairfield Street: How Ted Geisel Grew Up to Become Dr. Seuss – Kathleen Krull, Steve Johnson (illus.), Lou Francher (illus.)

Crawdad Creek – Scott Russell Sanders [Indiana author]

Flotsam – David Wiesner

Grandma Moses – Alexander Wallner

Here Is the Tropical Rain Forest – Madeleine Dunphy, Michael Rotham (illus.)

I Spy: A Book of Picture Riddles – Jean Marzollo, Walter Wick (illus.)

If You Decide to Go to the Moon – Faith McNulty, Steven Kellogg (illus.)

Math Fables – Greg Tang

My Name Is Celia: The Life of Celia Cruz/Me Llamo Celia: La Vida de Celia Cruz –

Monica Brown

Pick, Pull, Snap! Where Once a Flower Bloomed – Lola M. Schaefer [Indiana author]

Pop Bottle Science – Lynn Brunelle

Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburg Pirates - Jonah Winter, Raul Colon (illus.)

Secrets of Sounds: Studying the Calls of Whales, Elephants, and Birds –April Pulley Sayre [Indiana author]

Tomas and the Library Lady [biography of Tomas Rivera]– Pat Mora, Raul Colon (illus.)

Tornadoes – Seymour Simon

What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? – Robin Page, Steve Jenkins

What’s Up, What’s Down – Lola M. Schaefer [Indiana author]

When Marian Sang: True Recital of Marian Anderson – Pam Ryan, Brian Selznick (illus.)

Wind Flyers [Tuskegee Airmen] - Angela Johnson, Loren Long (illus.)

Intermediate and Middle School

(Grades 4 - 8)

Fiction, Folklore, and Poetry (Grades 4 - 8)

Airborn - Kenneth Oppel

After the Rain: Virginia's Diary, Book Two, Washington D. C., 1864 -Mary Pope Osborne

Anne of Green Gables (series) - L. M. Montgomery

Because of Winn-Dixie – Kate DiCamillo

Cam Jansen and the Summer Camp Mysteries (Cam Jansen series) - David A. Adler, Joy Allen

The City of Ember – Jeanne DuPrau

Eragon (Book 1, Inheritance series) - Christopher Paolini

Esperanza Rising - Pam Munoz Ryan

I, Robot – Isaac Asimov

Inkheart – Cornelia Funke

Molly Moon Stops the World (series) - Georgia Byng

Mystery at Blackbeard’s Cove – Audrey Penn

Peter and the Starcatchers - Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Greg Call (illus.)

Pirates of the Caribbean (Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow series) – Rob Kidd

Project Mulberry - Linda Sue Park

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (series) – Mildred D. Taylor

Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook - Shel Silverstein

A Series of Unfortunate Events (series) - Lemony Snicket, Brett Helquist

Shoeless Joe & Me (Baseball Card series) - Dan Gutman

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (series) - Ann Brashares

Skeleton Man – Joseph Bruchac

Squirrel and John Muir – Emily Arnold McCully

Stormbreaker (Alex Rider Adventure series) - Anthony Horowitz

The Teacher’s Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts – Richard Peck

The Toothpaste Millionaire – Jean Merrill

Nonfiction and Biography (Grades 4 - 8)

The Amazing Mr. Franklin: Or the Boy Who Read Everything – Ruth Ashby, Michael Montgomery (illus.)

Bone Detective: The Story of Forensic Anthropologist Diane France – Lorraine Jean Hopping

Cave Sleuths: Solving Science Underground – Laurie Lindop

The Children of Willesden Lane: Beyond the Kindertransport: A Memoir of Music, Love, and Survival – Mona Golabek, Lee Cohen

The Complete Book of Skateboards and Skateboarding Gear (World of Skateboarding series) - Brian Wingate

Diving to a Deep-Sea Volcano – Kenneth Mallory

Don't Know Much About Abraham Lincoln - Kenneth C. Davis, Rob Shepperson

The Grapes of Math [math riddles] – Gregory Tang, Harry Briggs (illus.)

Helen Keller: A Determined Life – Elizabeth MacLeod

Horses – Seymour Simon

How Dinosaurs Took Flight: Fossils, Science, What We Think We Know, and Mysteries Yet Unsolved –

Christopher Sloan

Indy 500: The Inside Track – Nancy Roe Pimm

Jazz - Walter Dean Myers, Christopher Myers (illus.)

Martin Luther King Jr: Dreaming of Equality – Ann S. Manheimer

Math-terpieces – Gregory Tang, Greg Paprocki (illus.)

Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War -
Tom Wheeler

No Better Hope: What the Lincoln Memorial Means to America - Brent K. Ashabranner

Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein – Don Brown

Oprah Winfrey: "I Don't Believe in Failure" - Robin Westin

Pirates of the Caribbean Visual Guide – DK Publishing

Pirateology: The Pirate Hunter’s Companion – William Captain Lubber, Dugald A. Steer (Ed.)

Science Detectives: How Scientists Solved Six Real-Life Mysteries – YES Magazine (Eds.),

Rose Cowles (illus.)

Star Wars Complete Visual Dictionary - DK Publishing (Ed.)

Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon – Catherine Thimmesh

Waves: From Surfing to Tsunami – Drew Kampion

X-Games: Action Sports Grab the Spotlight – Ian Young

High School and Older

(Grades 9 - 12+)

Fiction, Folklore, and Poetry (Grades 9 - 12+)

And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie

Ben Hur – Lew Wallace [Indiana author]

Centennial – James Michener

The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexander Dumas

Crazy Loco: Stories – David Rice

The Crystal Cave (series) – Mary Stewart

Dune – Frank Herbert

The Emancipator's Wife's [fictional portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln] - Barbara Hambly

Exodus – Leon Uris

Feeling Sorry for Celia – Jaclyn Moriarty

The Gilmore Girls: Other Side of Summer (Gilmore Girls series) - Amy Sherman-Palladino, Helen Pai

The House on Mango Street – Sandra Cisneros

If Rock and Roll Were a Machine – Terry Davis

The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan

The Killer Angels [Civil War Battle of Gettysburg] – Michael Shaara

The Life of Pi – Martel Yann

Master and Commander (series) – Patrick O’Brien

Missing Persons: The Chocolate Lover (Indiana setting series) - M. E. Rabb

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (series) – Alexander McCall Smith

Out of the Silent Planet – C. S. Lewis

The Praise Singer – Mary Renault

The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd

The Silmarillion – J. R. R. Tolkien

Skinwalkers (Joe Leaphorn series) – Tony Hillerman

Zorro: A Novel – Isabel Allende

Nonfiction and Biography (Grades 9 - 12+)

The Bookseller of Kabul – Asne Seierstad

Cosmos – Carl Sagan

Danica--Crossing the Line - Danica Patrick

Erosion: How Land Forms, How It Changes – Darlene R. Stille

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal – Eric Schlosser

Forensics (Kingfisher Knowledge series) – Richard Platt

Garfield's Guide to Everything - Jim Davis [Indiana author]

A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana – Haven Kimmel [Indiana author]

The Great Brain Book: An Inside Look at the Inside of Your Head – H. P. Newquist

In Code: A Mathematical Journey – Sarah and David Flannery

It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life – Lance Armstrong

The Last Best League: One Summer, One Season, One Dream - Jim Collins

Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power - Richard Carwardine

Live Your Best Life: A Treasury of Wisdom, Wit, Advice, Interviews, and Inspiration from O, The Oprah Magazine –

O, The Oprah Magazine (Eds.)

Manhunt: The12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer - James L. Swanson Amazon 4.5/2007

Marie Curie: The Woman Who Changed the Course of Science –Philip Steele

Never Mind Success—Go for Greatness!: The Best Advice I’ve Ever Received – Tavis Smiley [Indiana Broadcast Journalist]

Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies – Jason Surrell

Physics of Superheroes – James Kakalios

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey - Candice Millard

Rosa Parks - Douglas Brinkley

Seabiscuit: An American Legend – Laura Hillenbrand

Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination - Anthony Daniels

Stephen Hawking: Breaking the Boundaries of Time and Space – John Bankston

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln – Doris Kearns Goodwin

Tell Them We Remember: Story of the Holocaust – Susan D. Bachrach

Tiger Woods: A Biography – Lawrence J. Londino

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail - Bill Bryson

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination - Neal Gabler