Homeschool Summer Reading Guide 2023
What should you read this summer? Whatever you want!
What should read this summer? Whatever you want! But if you’re looking for a summer reading challenge, we’ve got you covered with Summer Reading Bingo — you can win by finishing a row or column, or get ambitious and complete the entire card. (Download your card here!) Whatever you decide, we’ve rounded up some books you might want to add to your list — some slot neatly into Bingo categories; others are just great reads that might tick off a particular category for you personally (even if’s just “a book you want to read”). Happy reading!
5 New Graphic Novels
Four Eyes
Middle school is hard enough — Rex’s best friend seems to migrating to the cool crowd, Rex is embarrassed about being on the free lunch program, and why won’t his locker open? — but it gets even harder when Rex needs glasses, and he ends up with the ugliest pair in the store. This funny-tender graphic novel has a Raina Telgemeier vibe. (Middle grades)
Hoops
Travel back to 1975, when Title IX opens the door for a girl’s basketball team at Judi’s Indiana high school. The girls’ sports budget is a joke — while the boys get fancy uniform they send out to be dry cleaned, the girls have to make their own uniforms with t-shirts and electrical tape. Based on a true story, this graphic novel is a warm story of friendship and determination, a reminder of the struggle that women’s sports faced in getting started, and also an opportunity to look at the continuing inequality in high school and professional sports. That sounds like a lot for one book, but Tavares makes it look easy. (Middle grades)
A First Time for Everything
The amazing thing about travel is not so much that it changes your life but that it changes you — and so your life feels different because you’re different. Dan Santat captures that evolution perfectly in this memoir about a teen’s first trip to Europe on a class trip. (Middle grades)
The Bawk-ness Monster
If you loved Pip Bartlett’s Guide to Magical Creatures, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist, you’ll be delighted to know there’s a new cryptid series in town. Penny knows that a magical creature saved her from drowning three years ago, and before she and her mom move out of town, Penny is determined to prove that her mysterious rescuer exists. It’s a good thing, too, because a shady cryptid-hunting organization also wants to track down the Bawk-ness Monster, and Penny and her friends may be the only ones who can save it. (Middle grades)
The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Princesses can’t inherit the crown in Lady Camembert’s world — but that’s just fine with Lady Camembert, who is delighted to move to the capital of Fromage and reinvent herself as Count Camembert, where she can enjoy life with none of the restrictions and expectations that plagued her life as a princess. But when she meets activist Princess Brie, keeping her secret becomes challenging. It’s a graphic novel full of cheese jokes with a queer love story and feminism — it’s like they made it just for me. (High school)
5 Inspired Short Story Collections
You Are Here: Connecting Flights
The Chicago airport on the Saturday before the Fourth of July is the connecting thread for 12 cleverly linked stories about Asian American teens navigating air travel in the 2020s — and the casual and not-so-casual racism they meet on their journeys. In one story, an adopted Korean is reluctantly visiting the country where she was born with her two white dads; in another (told entirely in lists), a boy gets a finger stuck in an airport chair; and in another tale, a long line at airport security is made even longer by a Chinese grandma who is traveling with her husband’s ashes in a coffee can. Happily, the stories’ protagonists end up finding ways to navigate the airport — and, by extension, life. (Middle grades)
Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic
If you are looking for an eerie, unsettling collection of speculative fiction, look no further: Tobi Ogundiran’s debut collection is pure creepy delight. Drawing on Nigerian folklore and bouncing off science fiction and fantasy tropes from around the world — “The Tale of Jaja and Canti” is a wistful take on Pinocchio, while “The Goatkeeper’s Harvest” has Lovecraftian vibes — this is the read-with-a-flashlight-at-summer-camp book you’ve been looking for. (High school)
Meet Cute: Some People Are Destined to Meet
There are plenty of light and fluffy romances in this collection — Emery Lord’s “Oomph” about two teens who meet at an airport during a flight delay is wholesome, heart-warming romance at its finest — but there’s also some real depth: In one story by Meredith Russo, a trans teen and a closeted teen find their school bathrooms a point of contention — and, ultimately, connection. (High school)
A Thousand Beginnings and Endings
What’s that you say? You’d love a fairy tale collection that draws on Asian lore rather than European traditions. Well, here you go: Roshani Chokshi’s “Forbidden Fruit” reimagines a classic Filipino tale of a goddess who falls in love with a moral; “The Counting of Vermillion Beads” spins a happy ending for a Vietnamese Cinderella story; and “Nothing Into All” is a magical retelling of a Korean folktale. And that’s just for starters! (High school)
Rags and Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales
I love this collection because it retells “classic stories” that many students won’t actually be familiar with — in addition to takes on familiar texts like Carmilla and Sleeping Beauty, authors riff on lesser-known tales like “The Jolly Corner” and “The Machine Stops.” You could absolutely build a comparative literature unit around this collection and its inspirations if you wanted, but it’s also fun to just read. (High school)
4 Books Featuring Teen Detectives
What Happened to Rachel Riley?
New kid/mystery podcast geek Anna is fascinated by a mystery at her new middle school: Last year, Rachel Riley was the most popular girl at East Middle; now she’s a social pariah, and Anna is determined to find out why. Anna dives into the mystery, collecting clues from social media posts, interviews, passed notes, and more. (Middle grades)
Gideon Green in Black and White
Former kid detective and current film noir buff Gideon Green has sworn off solving mysteries after his last case blew up in the worst possible way. But when his ex-best friend (and current high school cool kid) shows up at his door with a case, Gideon can’t resist the urge to solve one more mystery. (Middle grades)
The Agathas
Alice Ogilvie’s disappearing act last summer was the biggest story in Castle Cove — until Alice’s former bestie is murdered. Alice’s ex-boyfriend is the prime suspect — but Alice thinks he’s being set up, and she convinces her new tutor Iris to help her find the real culprit. Iris, though, has reasons of her own for being interested in the case. (High school)
Pretty as a Picture
Please let this be the first book in a series! Extreme introvert film editor Marissa Dahl takes a job on a top-secret set for a legendary director and finds a mystery: The actress playing the murder victim is murdered right on set. Two teens with a true crime podcast enlist Marissa’s help solving the murder. I think this would be a great addition to a YA mysteries reading list, even though it’s not shelved as a YA book. (High school)
4 Books Set in the 1990s
Rewind
McKinley’s town celebrates the past with a Time Hop every year. This year’s celebration is focused on 1993, the year her dad was in 6th grade just like her. With life in the present increasingly challenging, McKinley isn’t too upset to find herself transported back in time to the 90s — but what exactly is she supposed to set right in the past? (Middle grades)
Rana Joon and the One and Only Now
In 1996 California, Rana Joon is not the perfect Iranian daughter, but she thinks she can maybe be a perfect friend by entering a rap competition to honor her late friend Louie. (High school)
Retro
Remember life in the 1990s? A social media site is offering 21st century teens a big cash prize if they can live without smartphones, tablets, and other current tech for a year, and Luna signs on to participate — but finds herself in the center of a major conspiracy. (High school)
The Black Kids
The Los Angeles riots are the center of this novel about a group of Los Angeles friends navigating their final year of high school. Ashley and her pals have been looking forward to beach days and life after high school; instead, they’re forced to grapple with the destructive ways racism and classism are playing out in their own backyards. (High school)
5 Books Set at Summer Camp
The Last Girls Standing
It’s an 80s slasher flick in novel form: Sloan and her girlfriend are the only two survivors of a camp massacre, but the more Sloan discovers about what happened that terrible day, the more she suspects her girlfriend of keeping big secrets. (High school)
Camp Damascus
It feels like the time is probably right for a horror novel about super-religious camps designed to scare queer kids straight — and this one delivers just that. (High school)
Not Now, Not Ever
Elliot’s determined to reinvent herself AND win a scholarship to her dream college by participating in a cutthroat academic summer camp designed for super-overachievers. This book gave me fond memories of summer enrichment programs past. (High school)
You Have a Match
When Abby takes a DNA test, she discovers that she has a sister she’s never met — social media sensation Savvy, who’s just as surprised as Abby to discover a surprise sister. The two plan to meet up at the summer camp where Savvy is a counselor to figure out their family’s backstory. (High school)
Camp
Randy loves his summers at Camp Outland. He’s met his best friends there, found his passion for musical theater, and (maybe) fallen in love. This summer, though, he’s determined to reinvent himself as someone who his crush will actually notice. (High school)
7 Awesome Poetry Anthologies
Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times edited by Neil Astley
Themed around life milestones, from falling in love to losing loved ones to death, this collection features work from poets around the world. This collection leans into hope and optimism — it doesn’t ignore the challenges of life in the modern world, but its life-affirming slant makes it a lovely beginner’s collection.
A Poem for Every Day of the Year edited by Allie Esiri
With poems for Diwali, the spring solstice, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and other nontraditional holidays as well as the usual suspects, this anthology is a lovely way to add a little more poetry to your everyday life.
Firefly July: A Year Of Very Short Poems edited by Paul B. Janeczk
Themed around the seasons, this compilation emphasizes short, evocative poems that are perfect for discussion — and copywork, if that’s part of your homeschool routine.
Poetry for a Change: A National Poetry Day Anthology
Here’s a perfect little poetry collection: 43 poems about the challenges and delights of change from Yeats to Abigail Parry’s “Instructions for Not Becoming a Werewolf.” This one’s especially good if you're looking for poems to appeal to a wide range of ages.
Emergency Kit edited by Jo Shapcott and Matthew Sweeney
This is the poetry equivalent of in-case-of- emergency-break-glass — poems designed to see you through the spaces where you just feel too much, whether it’s giddy happiness or intense sorrow. If you like Spanish poetry, it’s really well represented here.
Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart edited by Mary Ann Hoberman
Memorizing poetry has been a much-loved part of our homeschool life, but even if you aren’t interested in committing poems to memory, this is a fun and memorable collection of classic and contemporary poetry.
Norton Anthology of Poetry
If you want a comprehensive, chronological collection for serious poetry study, this is the one you need. It’s maybe a little more intense than you want for a first poetry dip, but if you’re ready to get into deep critical reading, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better anthology.
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