Summer Ready: Get Reading with These Top Books for Summer 2013

by FirstGenerationStudent.com | May 29, 2013

This article was originally written for FirstGenerationStudent.com, now a part of ImFirst.org.

Need some suggestions for what you should be reading this summer? Whether you’re in high school or college, we have a lot of great books to keep your brain sharp during the summer break. They range from classics, like “Jane Eyre,” to sci-fi novels, like “Ender’s Game.”

How did we come up with our lists? We’re glad you asked! We gathered summer reading lists for 2013 from nearly 40 high schools across the country, and the 10 books that appeared most frequently for each grade made it onto our lists. The All Grades Top 20 List represents the most frequently recommended books from our summer reading research spanning all grades.

9th Grade Top 10 Reading List

  1. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
  2. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
  3. Mythology by Edith Hamilton
  4. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
  5. Fahregnheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  6. Night by Elie Wiesel
  7. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
  8. Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
  9. Gym Candy by Carl Deuker
  10. The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

10th Grade Top 10 Reading List

  1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
  2. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  3. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
  4. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
  5. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
  6. Hiroshima by John Hersey
  7. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
  8. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
  9. Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas
  10. Night by Elie Wiesel

11th Grade Top 10 Reading List

  1. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
  2. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
  3. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
  4. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
  5. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
  6. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
  7. The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
  8. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
  9. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  10. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

12th Grade Top 10 Reading List

  1. How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
  2. 1984 by George Orwell
  3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
  4. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  5. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
  6. The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver
  7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  8. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
  9. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
  10. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

All Grades Top 20 Reading List

  1. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
  2. How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
  3. Animal Farm by George Orwell
  4. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  5. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
  6. Jane Eyre by Jane Austen
  7. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  8. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
  9. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
  10. 1984 by George Orwell
  11. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
  12. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  13. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
  14. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
  15. Mythology by Edith Hamilton
  16. Night by Elie Wiesel
  17. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
  18. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
  19. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
  20. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

Do you know of any other books that should have made the list? Let us know your favorites by leaving a comment below!