Recommended Summer Reading

Summer break is primarily for family, friends, and leisure. Ideally, it is a time of rest through which students are rejuvenated for the coming school year. Therefore, summer reading suggestions are intended to enhance, not burden, summer break by showing students how to spend their time wisely. Hopefully, models such as Bilbo Baggins and George Washington inspire our students to employ their summers learning rewarding skills, practicing virtuous habits, and going on grand adventures.

Cincinnati Classical Academy’s suggested summer reading list contains high-quality reading material that will prepare your child for the coming school year. From kindergarten to second grade, books should be read aloud by parents. Enjoy!

For Parents

We suggest looking at this list to find books the you yourself might enjoy, not only for the fun of it, but to establish or reinforce a culture of books in the home. Few things, over the long term, prepare students for their own reading more than knowing that their parents enjoy it and seek it out themselves.

Here are a few specific suggestions for parents looking to for further guidance on helping students at home:

Arithmetic for Parents by Ron Aharoni
Character Building by David Isaacs
Mathematics for Human Flourishing by Francis Su
Study is Hard Work by William H. Armstrong

Rising Kindergarteners

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
The Random House Book of Mother Goose by Arnold Lobel
When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne
Dr. Seuss books

Rising 1st Grade

For Returning Students:

The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla
Curious George (series) by H. A. Rey
Encyclopedia Brown (series) by Donald J. Sobol
Paddington Bear (series) by Michael Bond

For Students New to CLASSICAL:

The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter
The Children’s Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett
American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne

Rising 2nd Graders

For Returning Students:

Stuart Little by E.B. White
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
The Thirteen Clocks by James Thurber
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

For Students New to CLASSICAL:

Pinnochio by Carlo Collodi
Stuart Little by E.B. White
The Thirteen Clocks by James Thurber
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Rising 3rd Grade

For Returning Students:

The Phanotm Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White
Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

For Students New to CLASSICAL:

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Classic Starts: Peter Pan by Tania Zamorsky, ed.
Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
Classic Myths to Read Aloud by Richard and William F. Russell

Rising 4th Grade

For Returning Students:

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
Guns for General Washington by Seymour Reit
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Robert Bulla

For Students New to CLASSICAL:

Aladdin and Other Favorite Arabian Nights Stories by Philip Smith, ed.
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

Rising 5th Grade

For Returning Students:

The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood
The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

For Students New to CLASSICAL:

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Robin Hood by J. Walker McSpadden
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Rising 6th Grade

For Returning Students:

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Golden Fleece by Padraic Colum
Herodotus and the Road to History by Jeanne Benedic
Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly

For Students New to CLASSICAL:

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Rising 7th Grade

Further Reading