I gave up on using the various summer recommended reading lists last year, unless DD wants to read some of them to be part of the conversation, like now she's going through the Percy Jackson books which are pretty cool while being popular.
The Mensa kids site has a wonderful list of books. DD is also finishing Lois Lenski's "Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison" which she loves and before that read an older children's fiction about the War of 1812 (we're now in the 200th anniversary year and it was big around our region).
Older, richer books for children really strike a wonderful balance with advanced vocabulary, learning about different times and history but with young protagonists and good themes. The Mensa list has alot of these for good ideas.
