Jumpstart your students' summer reading by pairing assigned books with one of Vocabulary.com's curated vocabulary lists.
Learning essential vocabulary in advance will help your students get the most out of the books they read independently during the summer months.
You can boost student comprehension and foster accountability — without creating any extra work or grading for yourself. Best of all, Vocabulary.com will automatically follow up with students over time so they really learn the words they struggled with.
Here's how to seamlessly integrate vocabulary instruction into your summer reading plans:
1. Select assigned texts, or invite students to choose their own books. Looking for some great summer reading suggestions? Our list of recommended titles below appeals to a range of interests and abilities.
2. Check out our high-quality, ready-made lists. Developed by seasoned educators, our lists are designed to align with your curriculum and to support independent reading. You can use the lists as they are, or copy and customize them.
3. Assign a Practice activity. When students practice the words on the list you assigned, they learn key vocabulary and preview the text before they tackle the reading.
4. Leave the follow-up to us. When students play The Challenge on Vocabulary.com, we automatically follow up with them until they master any words they struggled with.
Below, you'll find recommended 2019 summer reading, along with links to our curated vocabulary lists for each text. Bear in mind that these recommendations are just the tip of the iceberg. You can find more great resources on our Lists page, and we're adding new lists every week.
We've also kicked off a new summer reading series, featuring interviews with popular YA and middle grade authors. See what they have to say about their own novels set in summertime, and their favorite summer reads.
An Interview With Sandhya Menon
An Interview with Kekla Magoon
High-interest Books
Internment by Samira Ahmed
What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson
Louisiana’s Way Home by Katherine Applegate
New Kid by Jerry Craft
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lipincott
On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
Track series by Jason Reynolds: Ghost, Patina, Sunny, Lu
Pride by Ibi Zoboi
2019 Award Winners
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (National Book Award, Printz Award, Pura Belpré Award, and Walter Dean Myers Award)
The Unwanted by Don Brown (YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction)
A Few Red Drops by Claire Hartfield (Coretta Scott King Award)
Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson (Coretta Scott King John Steptoe Award for New Talent)
Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram (William C. Morris YA Debut Award)
Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina (Newbery Medal)
Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Walter Dean Myers Award)
Past Award Winners
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill (2016 Newbery Medal)
Monster by Walter Dean Myers (2000 Printz Award)
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (2018 Walter Dean Myers Award)
Esperanza Rising by Pamela Muñoz Ryan (2002 Pura Belpré Award)
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman (2015 National Book Award)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (2018 William C. Morris YA Debut Award)
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (2014 National Book Award)
Middle Grade Favorites
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies
Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Holes by Louis Sachar
Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Popular Graphic Novels
El Deafo by Cece Bell
Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova
Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin
Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
March by John Lewis
I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
Drama by Raina Telgemeier
Smile by Raina Telgemeier
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Classics
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Compelling Nonfiction
March Forward, Girl by Melba Pattillo Beals
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Educated by Tara Westover
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Beloved Series
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Percy Jackson & the Olympians by Rick Riordan
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Divergent by Veronica Roth