Summer reading should be highly encouraged amongst all children during the academic school year as well as the summer. Precious learning is lost during the summer months for students who are not actively engaged in the process of reading.
Loss of knowledge in the summer months is commonly known as "Summer Slide". Children and teens that do not read in the summer lose a considerable amount of reading achievement.
Poor children are most vulnerable to decline in reading skills during the summer. Ninety percent of reading achievement loss for disadvantaged youth takes place during the scorching summer months. Disadvantaged youth can garner development as advantaged youth during an academic school year but might not have access to costly educational enrichment programs in the summer.
Summer reading provides the remedy to retain and enhance reading skills. Providing books for your child to read in the summer can be less expensive than paying several hundred dollars for a summer reading enrichment program. A book borrow from your local library will garner no cost to you.
Children should read 3 or more books in the summer. Parents should follow-up and have a discussion pertaining to the books read, not like a drill sergeant but in a fun and exciting way. Your discussion can range from sharing exciting moments in the story to talking about characters.
The best way to prevent summer slide and a decrease in reading skills is to read. Here are a few popular African American and Hispanic YA Writers with suggested titles to enjoy summer reading.
The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales by Virginia Hamilton
Age Range: 5-12
Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales by Virginia Hamilton
Age Range: 4-8
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
Ages: 8 and up
The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
Age Range: 8-12
One Crazy Summer Paperback by Rita Williams-Garcia
Age Range: 8-12
Brendan Buckley's Sixth-Grade Experiment by Sundee T. Frazier
Age Range: 9-12
Words with Wings by Nikki Grimes
Ages: 8 and up
Unstoppable Octobia May by Sharon Flake
Age Range: 8-12
If I Was Your Girl by Ni-Ni Simone
Ages: 14 and up
Chameleon by Charles R. Smith Jr.
Ages: 14 and up
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Ages: 12 and up
Darius & Twig Paperback by Walter Dean Myers
Ages: 12 and up
Drama High: No Mercy by L. Divine
Ages: 12 and up
Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright
Ages: 12 and up
Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
Ages: 12 and up
A Summer Life by Gary Soto
Ages: 12 and up
You Don't Even Know Me: Stories and Poems About Boys by Sharon G. Flake
Ages: 12 and up
Accidental Love by Gary Soto
Ages: 12 and up
We Could Be Brothers by Derrick Barnes
Age Range: 10-14
Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri, Randy DuBurke
Age Range: 10-16
Tyrell Paperback by Coe Booth
Ages: 14 and up
Tears of a Tiger (Hazelwood High Trilogy) by Sharon M. Draper
Ages: 12 and up