Developing your reading skills early not only builds a strong foundation for your education, but also helps you grow as an individual; enabling you to express yourself better, gain a wider perspective of the world, and foster your critical thinking skills.
We’ve carefully created a recommended Top 10 book list which you can also download and print to use as a checklist and track your reading progress through the summer!
The full reading list is also available in case you complete these 10 books. Click here to download it.
Here is Our Top 10 Reading list, with reviews from acclaimed critics:
- The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
“Cisneros draws on her rich [Latino] heritage . . . and seduces with precise, spare prose, creat[ing] unforgettable characters we want to lift off the page. She is not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one.”
- Bebe Moore Campbell of The New York Times Book Review
- The Outsiders by SE Hinton
“The Outsiders is a classic in young adult fiction that revolutionised the genre by presenting adolescent characters that were the opposite of everything a teenager, by adult standards, should have been.”
- The Guardian, dated September 23, 2015
- The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera
“The genius of the movie (Play) is the way it sidesteps all of the obvious cliches of the underlying story and makes itself fresh, observant, tough and genuinely moving.”
- Roger Ebert’s review of the movie based on the bestselling Play.
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
“This is an adventure of a lifetime. You will not be disappointed. I would give this book a solid 9/10 because it was just a great read overall. Being at the same level as the Lord of the Rings is no mean feat, but this book manages it with ease! ”
- The Guardian, dated July 18, 2013
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Altogether we take great joy in recording our conviction that Great Expectations is a masterpiece.
- Review in The Atlantic
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
There is something in the force of Alexie’s description that captures your heart, even while some of his raunchiest statements can turn your stomach…Knowing that he fought a successful fight against all the things that oppressed him as a kid gives (the book) even greater resonance. Hope is indeed the thing with feathers.
- Jana Sicilliano’s review on Bookreporter.com
- The Hate you Give by Angie Thomas
“Beautifully written in Starr’s authentic first-person voice, this is a marvel of verisimilitude.”
- Michael Cart, writing in Booklist
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
“With a storyline that hints at Christian allegory and an eerie futuristic setting, this intriguing novel calls to mind John Christopher’s Tripods trilogy and Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl. Lowry is once again in top form – raising many questions while answering few, and unwinding a tale fit for the most adventurous readers.”
- Review by Publishersweekly.com
- The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
“I can promise you that you’ll finish the book, left with a new and fresh outlook on the world around you and perhaps a thought as to what exactly Lord of the Flies is about. Indeed its inner meaning is very dark, making the reader wonder how thin the line between good and evil really is.”
- The Guardian, dated January 24, 2012
10. The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoos
The heroism in Phillip Hoose’s “The Boys Who Challenged Hitler” reads almost like a pulp-fiction tale of juvenile swashbuckling…Told in straightforward, even prosaic language, this account will help young readers imagine themselves in the midst of the unimaginable — and will show them how kids much like them managed to survive.”
- M.T. Anserson, reviewing for the New York Times, dated September 11, 2015.
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