The Geneva School yearns to see good readers, and reading well requires direction, discipline, and diligence.  For nearly ten months of the year, our teachers strive arduously toward the task of teaching mechanics and comprehension, analysis and appreciation.  They assign books to be read, questions to be answered, and ideas to be pondered.  Their direction demands discipline and diligence, and your children willingly comply.  Reading for understanding begins with the necessity of hard work, but the rewards pay dividends in imagination and inspiration.

The love of reading good books is born, not built; it is always cultivated, never compelled.  The enjoyment of that which is good, true, and beautiful is the fruit of all genuine leisure and the proper object of our God-given freedom to choose.  That a book we are reading does not have to be read is often what brings us greatest pleasure.  For this reason Geneva has chosen this year to draft a summer reading list of recommendations, rather than of obligations.  The titles reflect some of the best of our ideals, both of faith and of learning, and they are works deemed virtuous and valuable by our teachers.

The Geneva School longs to see good readers of best books, but it desires equally to cultivate a love of them.  Encourage your children to read.  Read with them, and around them, and to them, please.  But when they ask, “Why ought I read this book or that?” consider the answer not must, but should.

Rising First Grade
At this age, children are reading, or not reading, at various levels.  We’ve chosen books that identify differing abilities.  A good book can be enjoyed by all.

• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
• Curious George by H.A. Rey
• Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
• Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
• Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik and Maurice Sendak
• Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt and Tim Jonke
• Story about Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese
• Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall
• Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
• James Herriot’s Treasury for Children by James Herriot (Poetry)

Rising Second Grade
At this age, children are reading at various levels.  We’ve chosen books that identify differing abilities.  A good book can be enjoyed by all.

• Blaze and Billy series by C. W. Anderson
• Birthday for Frances and others in series by Lillian Hoban
• Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say
• The Bravest Dog Ever:  The True Story of Balto by Natalie Standiford
• A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams
• Tuesday by David Wiesner  (This is a picture book that adults will love, too!  Your child may simply enjoy exploring the thrilling story or he may want to make up his own.)
• Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
• A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson (Poetry)

Rising Third Grade
At this age, children are reading at various levels.  We’ve chosen books that identify differing abilities.  A good book can be enjoyed by all.

• Rechenka’s Eggs by Patricia Polacco
• The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh
• Hooray for Diffendoofer Day by Dr. Seuss
• So You Want to be President? by Judith St. George and David Small
• Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo      
• Next Spring an Oriole (first in series) by Gloria Whelan and other books in series:  Night of the Full Moon, Shadow of the Wolf.  For most children these books will be best read aloud together.
• Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O’Neill (Poetry)

Rising Fourth Grade

• Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
• Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
• Then There Were Five (and others in the series) by Elizabeth Enright
• Daniel Boone by James Daugherty (Biography)
• The Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli
• When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne (Poetry)

Rising Fifth Grade

• Homer Price by Robert McCloskey
• The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
• Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
• My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
• Smoky the Cow Horse by Will James
• Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
• Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson by Frances Schoonmaker Bolin

Rising Sixth Grade

• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Hatchet by Gary Pulsen
• Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
• The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
• Story of My Life by Helen Keller (Biography)
• Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco. (This story gives honest yet tender insight into the realities of the Civil War through a friendship forged between two soldiers, one Union and one Confederate. Although this book is written for a lower grade level, we believe its poignant content is appropriate for a rising sixth grader.)
• You Come Too:  Favorite Poems for Young Readers by Robert Frost (Poetry)