Say Goodbye to Summer Slide with This Reading List

Now that the fast transition to remote learning is behind us (for now), we are in the midst of a long summer and like any summer, educators and parents are looking to avoid that pesky "Summer Slide." According to scholastic.com, Summer Slide research has been in effect since at least 1996. In a comprehensive study, it was discovered that students lose significant knowledge in reading and math over the summer, making the fall a tough season for teachers, students, and parents (scholastic.com).

Here is a suggested summer reading list for middle to high school students compiled by a Writer's Grit, LLC professional and used at Dallas Christian Academy in Dallas, Texas. These selections will keep any scholar's brain tingling: Encourage your scholar to read at least 4 books this summer to avoid Summer Slide.

World Literature

Enuma Elish

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Theogony—Hesiod

The Iliad—Homer

The Odyssey—Homer

Oedipus Rex—Sophocles

The Koran—Mohammed

Inferno—Dante

Cyrano de Begerac—Rostand

Les Miserables—Hugo

The Hunchback of Notre Dame—Hugo

The Three Musketeers—Dumas

The Scarlet Pimpernel—Orckzy

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea—Verne

(or, Journey to the Center of the Earth)

(or, Around the World in 80 Days)

Swiss Family Robinson—Wyss

War and Peace—Tolstoi

British Literature

Beowulf

Faerie Queene—Spenser

Canterbury Tales—Chaucer

The Holy War—Bunyan

Pilgrim’s Progress—Bunyan

Paradise Lost—Milton

Gulliver’s Travels—Swift

Robinson Crusoe—Defoe

Ivanhoe—Scott

Sense and Sensibility—Austen

(or, Persuasions)

Oliver Twist—Dickens

David Copperfield—Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities—Dickens

Jane Eyre—C. Bronte

Wuthering Heights—E. Bronte

Frankenstein—Shelley

Alice in Wonderland—Carroll

Through the Looking Glass—Carroll

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde—Stevenson

The Jungle Books—Kipling

The Hound of the Baskervilles—Doyle

The Time Machine—Wells

War of the Worlds—Wells

Peter Pan—Barrie

Pygmalion—Shaw

The Man Who Was Thursday—Chesterton

And Then There Were None—Christie

Whose Body?—Sayers

The Nine Taylors—Sayers

Documents in the Case—Sayers

The Chronicles of Narnia —Lewis

Lost Horizon—Hilton

The Wind in the Willows—Grahame

Horatio Hornblower—Forester

Shakespeare

Hamlet

Macbeth

Lear

Othello

Henry V

Romeo and Juliet

The Tempest

Much Ado About Nothing

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Taming of the Shrew

Merchant of Venice

Twelfth Night

American Literature

Of Plymouth Plantation—Bradford

The Last of the Mohicans—Cooper

The Scarlet Letter—Hawthorne

The House of Seven Gables—Hawthorne

Walden—Thoreau

Moby Dick—Melville

Little Women—Alcott

An Old Fashioned Girl—Alcott

Tom Sawyer—Twain

Huckleberry Finn—Twain

The Prince and the Pauper—Twain

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court—

Twain

Ben-Hur—Wallace

Anne of Green Gables—Montgomery

Pollyanna—Porter

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm—Wiggin

The Yearling—Rawlings

The Old Man and the Sea—Hemingway

Marriage and Family

Boundaries in Dating—Cloud and Townsend

Christian Education—Ellen G. White

Daughters of God—Ellen G. White

Messages to Young People—Ellen G. White

Business and Investment

How to Manage Your Money­—Burkett

The Millionaire Next Door—Stanley & Danko

Rich Dad, Poor Dad—Klyosaki

The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need

—Tobias

Understanding Wall Street—Little and Rhodes

Beat the Street—Lynch

One Up on Wall Street—Lynch

The Motley Fool Investment Guide—Gardner

& Gardner

The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing

—Larimore, Lindauer, and LeBoeuf

Leadership

What Color Is My Parachute—Bolles

Improving Your Serve—Swindoll

Results-Based Leadership—Ulrich, Zenger,

and Smallwood

The Starbucks Experience—Michelli

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership—Maxwell

Outliers—Gladwell

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People—Covey

Credibility—Kouzes & Posner

Christian Leadership—Ellen G. White