Importance of Summer Reading
Research shows that reading only six books or a couple of hours during the summer may prevent a child from regressing!
It is essential that children continue to read during the summer to prevent the "summer slide." The summer slide is the tendency for students to lose some of the academic gains they made during the previous school year. Research shows that children experience learning losses when they don't engage in reading activities during the summer. Did you know:
- The amount of time children spend reading outside of school is linked to reading achievement. Access to books and magazines is directly related to higher reading achievement.
- Children who are read to in the home and who use the library perform better in school and are more likely to continue to use the library as a source of lifetime learning.
- To succeed in school and life, children and young adults need ongoing opportunities to learn and practice essential skills.
Comics? "Good" Literature?
Recommended Reading Lists
American Library Association, 2021 (Current as of May, 2022)
Bank Street College of Education
Best Books of the Year, 2022 Edition
Publisher's Weekly Summer Reads 2022
Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) Diversity in Action (Día), 2022
International Literacy Association (The Choices reading program has been temporarily suspended. The 2020 Teachers' and Children's Choices are the most current published lists.)
Additional Recommendations
- The Horn Book - 2022 Summer Reading Lists
- Brightly Summer Reading List
- Kids Lit Collective 2021 Summer Reading List (Not yet updated for 2022)
- ALSC Graphic Novel Reading Lists (Last updated in 2021)
- ALSC Embracing Gender Identities Book Lists
Ebooks and Audiobooks
Where to go to find books to read or listen to online?
Borrow ebooks and digital audiobooks any time, anywhere, collected and shared by several international schools in Vietnam, as well as books purchased just for the use of HIS students and teachers.
Go to Sora. [On your phone or tablet you'll need to install the app.] Click on "Find my school" and choose Hanoi International School under the Vietnam Schools Consortium. Sign in with your HIS Google account. Look for a book. Borrow to read or listen on your laptop, phone or tablet.
Epic! If your teacher has created and shared a class account, you can use this amazing collection of ebooks from home for free during school hours. Parents can subscribe for use outside of school time for a small fee.
Tumblebook Library (username: hanoi; password: books) offers hundreds of ebooks and audiobooks.
Story Box Library (username: SBHIS; password: hisreads) is "the best stories being read aloud to you by our favourite storytellers" from Australia. Includes books categorized by PYP themes.
Vooks turns popular storybooks into videos with clear narration and catchy music. Like Epic, Vooks is free for teachers and available to families at home for a small fee.
More sources of ebooks and digital audiobooks:
Storyline Online This award-winning children’s literacy website streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations.
ReadingIQ is a comprehensive digital library developed by Age of Learning, the creators of the award-winning ABCmouse Early Learning Academy; provides the best of children’s literature, including Caldecott and Newbery award winners, National Geographic and National Geographic Kids books,.., and thousands of additional high-quality fiction and nonfiction books from leading publishers. Free for educators who can add students to a class account.
International Children's Digital Library is a free collection of ebooks in many languages, from many countries.
Global Storybooks Online is another free multilingual source for storybooks from around the world for children and youth.
Oxford Owl Oxford University Press offers a free ebook library (registration required)
Free Kids Books A library of books available for reading online or downloading. (Be careful of the ads!)
Loyal Books There are many classic children’s books now in the public domain. This is one site offering them as ebooks and audiobooks.
Project Gutenberg Another source of public domain ebooks. This would be a good resource for older students.
Credit
Thank you to the librarians of Shanghai American School for permission to borrow some of the content of this libguide.