Get Smart(er): Summer Reading List

June 2010

Ever heard of the "summer slide?" It's when you forget a bunch of the stuff you learned in school in the summer and then have to relearn it next year. But research shows that just reading a few books in the summer can prevent the slide, and, well, basically make you smarter for fall. Check out this reading list created by the West Virginia Department of Education.

Middle School Students:
Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor; How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell; Stuart Little by E.B. White; The Call of the Wild by Jack London; Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell; The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; James and the Giant Peach by Ronald Dahl; Stone Fox by John Gardiner; The River by Gary Paulsen; Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan; Charlotte's Web by E.B. White; Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson.

High School Students:
Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam; Invisible Man by H.G. Wells; Catch 22 by Joseph Heller; Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett; Beloved by Toni Morrison; A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines; Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse; West Side Story by Arthur Laurents; A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean; Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen.

Additional Information and Resources

The Perks of Having a Summer Job
Check out cfwv.com to start planning for college, a career or life in general.