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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/opinion/sunday/how-to-choose-summer-reading-for-students.html
Some Books Are More Equal Than Others
By CLAIRE NEEDELL HOLLANDER
New York Times
June 23, 2012

...

For newly fluent readers, usually age 8 or 9, any reading is indeed good reading.

But for students in middle school and high school, reading selection does matter. Students attain more knowledge of both kinds reading Stephen Crane’s “Red Badge of Courage” than they do reading the “Hunger Games” series. When the protagonist of “Red Badge” reflects on his pride in having “donned blue,” it requires both verbal and world knowledge to comprehend that he is proud of having enlisted as a Union soldier.

While “The Hunger Games” may entrance readers, what does a 13-year-old gain in verbal and world knowledge from the series? A student may encounter a handful of unfamiliar words, while contemplating human dynamics that are cartoonish, with violent revolution serving as the backdrop for teen romance.

Reading literature should be intentional. The problem with much summer reading is that the intention is unclear. Increasingly, students are asked to choose their own summer reading from Web sites like ReadKiddoRead, where the same advanced Real World Fiction category includes “The Catcher in the Rye” and “Flipped,” by Wendelin Van Draanen, which centers on divorce and kissing. Both books can be enjoyed by middle schoolers, but how will the seventh grader determine which one to pick?

The issue is further compounded when summer assignments require students to write about what they read. The problem is that the tasks assigned are at once too open and too circumscribed to be of use. What summer reading needs to be is purposeful. But how do we ensure purposeful independent reading given the low accountability of summer assignments?

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The author goes on to list some recommended non-fiction.

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.

Thanks so much for mentioning the Mensa site! I didn't know Mensa put out reading lists. They are, as you say, heavy on older books, which for the reasons you list makes them preferable to just about everything my kids' schools recommend.

yes...isn't it great? One new book not on there that my DD loved last summer is "Wild Wings" by Gill Lewis, about kids and osprey. Warning...a girl does die in it, by my DD was not shaken up by it (I sure was!) she was more interested in finding out more about meningitis. That's how she is.

Gill Lewis has a new one out just about now about dolphins.

Thanks for the recommendation. It's hard to predict which books might attract my kids; I think for now we'll just go with the ones on the list that we happen to own.

I'm also trying to get both kids to read more non-fiction, so I've put a bunch of popularizing history books out on ds13's dresser. It seems to be working -- he picked up 'The Ghost Map', about the discovery of the cause of cholera during an outbreak of the disease in London in 1854, and has pronounced it 'officially cool'. He wants to use it next year to compete in History Day.

the coolest new thing at our house. Free ebooks, kindle etc from the library. you cant get them electronically and no late fees. when they are due they just disappear off the kindle.
cut down on our book expeditures considerably. ( purchases and late fees)

The "Ghost Map" sounds interesting. I'll note it for the future. Glad another kid is interested in diseases, "officially cool".

I go to the library book sales and used book stores and over time you can often find some inexpensive copies of some of the Mensa-type books, since they're "tried and true" and floating around. Then you can bring them home and put them on the shelf and on a rainy day if no electronic time (hee hee) they'll be forced to drift over and pick up a book.

Do you have to be a Mensa member to access their book list? Just curious - we've never joined, but ds qualifies and I've thought of signing him up.

polarbear

DS4 yesterday was "an amoeba causing bloody diarrhoea" - will have to remember the 'Ghost Map' in a few years time!

Here are links to the book lists for various grade levels:
http://mensaforkids.org/ReaderAward/k_3.pdf
http://mensaforkids.org/ReaderAward/4_6.pdf
http://mensaforkids.org/ReaderAward/7_8.pdf
http://mensaforkids.org/ReaderAward/9_12.pdf

The lists say this:

"The reading list cited is the property of the National
Endowment for the Humanities, www.neh.gov. The program is provided as a complimentary service to the public. Reproduction and distribution without modification is allowed."