Summer Reading List 2025

Summer reading is a fantastic time to fall in love with a great work of literature and to sharpen the mind. Therefore, Island School requires all students, grades 6-12, to read at least two books over the summer from our grade-by-grade book list below. All the books listed for grades 6-8 are available to borrow from Island School.

Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Unplugged by Gordon Korman

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

Call it Courage by Armstrong Sperry

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper

Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen

Zia by Scott O'Dell

One Boy, No Water by Lehua Parker

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan

Holes by Louis Sachar

The Rainbow Quest by Rosella Crawford-Bathurst

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

The Black Pearl by Scott O'Dell  

Under the Blood Red Sun by Graham Salisbury

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

Hawaiian Myths of Earth, Sea, and Sky by Vivian Laubach Thompson

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Kaua’i Kids in War and Peace by Bill Fernandez

Brave New World by Aldus Huxley

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario

World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

All the Love in the World  by Cathy Song

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The Hobbit by J.R. Tolkien

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Splintered Paddle by Bill Fernandez

Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Surf is Where You Find It by Gerry Lopez

All I Asking For Is My Body by Milton Murayama

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

A Crack in Creation by Jennifer Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg

Freakonomics by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig

Barbarian Days by William Finnegan

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

Against Everything by Mark Greif

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon

Hawai’i by James Michener

Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov

The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Galielo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel