Summer is a perfect season to encourage reading in your home. If you are looking for the best way to help your high school student develop a love of reading, this ultimate guide to summer reading is a great place to start!
The Ultimate Summer Reading List For High School School Students
In an effort to curate a list of the very best titles for teens, we asked Sonlight families to share their favorite summer book recommendations. The following list was crowd sourced from other like-minded parents, all passionate about finding the very best books for high school summer reading.
Take a look at all the amazing books we have on our list and download a printable PDF copy below!
Titles that are part of a series are indicated with an asterik (*). See below for the complete list of series recommended by Sonlight families.
Sonlight Titles Recommended By Parents For Summer Reading
We know that exposure to rich and engaging stories is one of the best ways to help high school learners expand their knowledge. That’s why it's no surprise that many of the titles parents recommended for summer reading are also a part of our literature based approach to high school learning. These wonderful books are woven into Sonlight's language arts programs, and are also available for summer reading options.
- Beyonders: A World Without Heroes*
- Echo Mountain
- The Adventures and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
- The Hiding Place
- The Thief*
- The Screwtape Letters
- The War that Saved My Life*
- Till We Have Faces
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Number the Stars
- Oliver Twist
- Pay Attention Carter Jones
The Top Books Recommended By Parents Of High School Learners
This list of books includes the most highly recommended titles from parents homeschooling high schoolers.
- Absolutely Truly*
- A Chance to Die
- A Dangerous Toll
- A River Runs Through it and Other Short Stories
- A School for Unusual Girls*
- Airborne at the End of the Earth
- All the Light We Cannot See
- And Then There Were None
- Andy Catlett*
- Between Shades of Gray
- Book of a Thousand Days
- Boys in the Boat
- Christy
- Cinder*
- Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam
- Crocodile on the Sandbank*
- Daddy Long Legs
- Doon*
- Dragonfly Eyes
- East*
- Endurance
- Eragon*
- Fallout
- Friends and Foes*
- Greensleeves
- Gregor the Overlander*
- Hawksmaid: The Untold True Story of Robin Hood and Maid Marion
- Hope in the Mail
- Howl's Moving Castle*
- I am Malala
- I Will Always Write Back
- Little Women
- Lost and Found*
- Miss Buncles Book*
- New of the World
- Okay for Now
- Once Upon A Wardrobe
- Paul, Big, and Small
- Peace Like a River
- Pride and Prejudice
- Princess of the Midnight Ball*
- Refugee
- Sisters of Sword and Song
- Sleeping Coconuts
- Spindle's End*
- The Anthropocene Reviewed
- The Book of Lost Names
- The Book Thief
- The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Young Reader's Edition)
- The Count of Monte Cristo
- The Enchanted Sonata
- The Faithful Spy
- The False Prince*
- The Goose Girl*
- The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm
- The Last Bookshop in London
- The Lord of the Rings
- The Merchant's Daughter*
- The Oath
- The Scottish Chiefs
- The Seven Tales of Trinket
- The Spanish Brothers A Tale of the Sixteenth Century
- The White Mountains*
- These Happy Golden Years*
- Tisha: The Wonderful True Love Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaskan Wilderness
- Uncle Tom's Cabin
- Virgil Wander
- Watership Down
- West with the Night
- Winds of Skilak*
Books Series For High School Summer Reading
The best way to encourage a reading practice in your home is to find an author or storyline that interests your child and encourage them to read more of it! These top books series were recommended by parents as well.
- Amelia Peabody (20 book series)
- Beyonders (3 book series)
- Books of Bayern (4 book series)
- Boston Jane (3 book series)
- Crispin (3 book series)
- Doon (4 book series)
- East (2 book series)
- Fairy Tale Romance Series (11 book series)
- Folktales Series (3 books)
- Howl's Castle (3 book series)
- Hunger Games (3 book series)
- Little House on the Prairie (9 book series)
- Micropowers (2 book series)
- Miss Buncle (4 book series)
- Port William (10 books)
- Pumpkin Falls Mystery (4 book series)
- Redwall (22 book series)
- Stranje House (4 book series)
- The Ascendance (5 book series)
- The Inheritance Cycle (5 book series)
- The Jonquil Brothers Series (6 book series)
- The Lunar Chronicles (4 book series)
- The Queen's Thief (7 book series)
- The Tillerman Cycle (7 book series)
- The Tripods (4 book series)
- The Underland Chronicles (5 book series)
- The War That Saved My Life Series (2 book series)
- Twelve Dancing Princesses (3 book series)
- Winds of Skilak (2 book series)
Summer Reading Matters!
There are many benefits to summer reading for all ages, especially high schoolers. Here are just a few:
- Minimize summer learning loss. Studies show that there is a decline in academic skills when students don't read or participate in other learning activities during long breaks. Keeping your child engaged and active in well-written stories is a great way to help minimize summer learning loss.
- Improve vocabulary. A regular reading practice exposes learners to new words and vocabulary. Reading throughout the summer creates a language rich environment, increasing vocabulary skills. This is helpful across all subjects, all year long.
- Foster a love of reading. The lazy days of summer combined with an engrossing book are a perfect pairing for creating a love of reading.
Encouraging your high schooler to read throughout the summer is good for their academic achievement, to be sure. It is also a wonderful way to help them create their own lifelong passion for reading.
Looking for more than just high school books? Take a look at our complementary guides for elementary and middle school readers.
Track your summer reading progress with Sonlight's FREE Summer Reading Challenge Kit too!
