Summer Reading List 2023
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Picture Books | Early Readers | Chapter Books
Young Teens | Teens
Adult Fiction | Adult Non-Fiction
Where will your summer reading journey take you? The theme this year is, “Find your Voice!” Here’s hoping that you find books to inspire, provoke and engage you in discovering something new!
Need help getting one of these titles? You can reserve a copy by placing a hold at lincc.org or give us a call (503-783-3455), and we’ll be glad to help. For even more ideas, just ask your librarian!
Also, have you joined us for our summer reading program? Book lovers of all ages are eligible.
Want even more summer reading ideas from past years? Check out these pages:
2021 | 2022
Picture Books
Beneath by Cori Doerrfeld
Finn is in a bad mood, so his grandfather takes him on a walk in the forest, and tells him about all the things that are beneath the surface of plants and animals–and even people.
Chirri & Chirra in the Night by Kaya Doi
With the light of their trusty bicycles and a glorious full moon illuminating the darkness, Chirri and Chirra take on the night, accompanied by their new cat friends.
Endlessly Ever After by Dan Santat
In this rhyming mash-up of many fairy tales, the reader is invited to follow Rosie down the many possible paths which may lead to a sleeping maiden, a hungry wolf, a girl locked in a tower, or a goose that lays golden eggs–but with some luck, and some smart choices, Rosie may save herself and her fellow fairy tale characters.
Forest Bath Right Down This Path by Lisa Robinson; illustrated by Khoa Le
On a sticky summer day, when it is too hot to do anything, Kayla suggests a forest bath. Daddy needs a little more convincing, but soon they are heading into the forest. As the worries and distractions of the day melt away, Kayla and her father relax and enjoy the pleasure of forest bathing—and of being together.
Hot Dog by Doug Salati
This hot dog has had enough of summer in the city! Enough of sizzling sidewalks, enough of wailing sirens, enough of people’s feet right in his face. When he plops down in the middle of a crosswalk, his owner endeavors to get him the breath of fresh air he needs. She hails a taxi, hops a train, and ferries out to the beach.
Summer is for Cousins by Rajani LaRocca; illustrated by Abhi Alwar
Ravi can’t wait to spend summer vacation at the lake house with his family—especially his cousins! Summer vacation is for days at the beach, long hikes, paddleboarding, and—of course—ice cream.
The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Mac Barnett; illustrated by Jon Klassen
The classic fairy tale, retold with humor and flair – this is pure read-aloud magic!
When You Can Swim by Jack Wong
This poetic modern classic invites children into the warmth and wonder of the natural world and its watery splendors.
Early Readers
Beginning readers, short chapters, and lots of fun
Elena Rides by Juana Medina
Learning to ride a bike is hard, but Elena can do it. She just has to try, try again.
Lemon Bird can Help by Paulina Ganuchau
Trying to find their way back home, Lemon Bird and her pumpkin dog friend, Pupkin, make lots of new friends and, along the way, realize they can help those in need as well!
Nat the Cat Takes a Bath by Jarrett Lerner
Nat the Cat keeps coming up with excuses to not get in the bath, and the narrator can’t help but wonder if he’s hiding something.
Owl and Penguin by Vikram Madan
Owl and Penguin embrace their differences and solve their problems with creative play.
Tater Tales: Greatest in the World by Ben Clanton
Spud siblings, Rot and Snot, hold an epic contest to prove who is ‘the greatest in the world’, judged by their small fry little sister, Tot. A hilarious series starter by the creator of the beloved Narwhal and Jelly series.
Wombats! Go Camping by Maddie Frost
Albert and Pickles are an unlikely pair of besties and they’re ready to go camping and explore the great outdoors for the first time.
Worm and Caterpillar are Friends by Kaz Windness
When Caterpillar disappears for a while and comes back as Butterfly, he wonders if Worm will still want to be his best friend, in this heartwarming celebration of friendship.
Chapter Books
Just right for grade schoolers
Big Tree by Brian Selznick
Sycamore seed siblings Merwin and Louise must use their wits to navigate a mysterious and often dangerous world, filled with talking plants, monsters. and the fear of never finding the right conditions to set down roots and become big trees in this epic adventure for the whole family.
The Firefly Summer by Morgan Matson
Over the course of one unforgettable summer—filled with s’mores and swimming, adventure and fun, and even a decades-old mystery to solve—Ryanna discovers a whole new side of herself and that, sometimes, the last place you expected to be is the place where you really belong.
Moth Keeper by K. O’Neill
Being a Moth Keeper is a huge responsibility and a great honor, but what happens when the new Moth Keeper decides to take a break from the moon and see the sun for the first time? A luminous graphic novel from the creator of The Tea Dragon Society.
Felice and the Wailing Woman by Diana Lopez
The twelve-year-old daughter of La Llorona vows to free her mother and reverse the curses that have plagued the magical town of Tres Leches.
Odder by Katherine Applegate
When Odder, a fearless curious otter pup, comes face-to-face with a hungry great white shark, her life takes a dramatic turn, one that will challenge everything she believes about herself–and about the humans who hope to save her. Inspired by the Monterey Bay Aquarium program for orphaned otter pups.
Search for the Giant Squid: Pick your Path by Amy Seto Forrester and Andy Chou Musser
Learn about giant squids in this choose your own path style STEM adventure.
Squished by Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter
Tired of feeling squished by her six siblings, 11-year-old aspiring artist Avery Lee hatches a plan to finally get her own room until everything around her gets complicated, especially when she finds out her family might move across the country. A new graphic novel by the creators of Allergic.
Middle School
Just right for 6th-8th graders
Bomb: The Race to Build – and Steal – the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin and Nick Bertozzi
This thrilling graphic novel adaptation of the award-winning nonfiction book takes readers back to 1938 where they will witness the creation of the atomic bomb — a story of plotting, risk-taking, deceit and genius that created the world’s most formidable weapon.
The Carrefour Curse by Dianne K. Salerni
When twelve-year-old Garnet finally meets her magical extended family, she discovers they’re all trapped in the ruins of their crumbling manor and Garnet must break a curse that has decimated the family in this fun, creepy mystery.
Danger and other Unknown Risks by Ryan North and Erica Henderson
The creators of Unbeatable Squirrel Girl serve up a laugh-out-loud, magical, dystopian adventure, in which Marguerite de Pruitt and her dog, Daisy, must stop the Earth from tilting into deadly chaos — a mission they’ve trained their whole lives for, or so they think.
A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat
Bestselling author and artist Dan Santat shares his awkward middle school years and a trip to Europe that changed his life in this graphic memoir filled with humor and heart.
Gaby’s Latin American Kitchen by Gaby Melian
Travel the world of Latin America with 70 recipes developed and written by Gaby Melian—all kid-tested and kid-approved!
The Sun and the Star by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro
Demigods Nico di Angelo, the son of Hades, and Will Solace, the son of Apollo, find their relationship tested to the core as they endure the terrors of Tartarus, the lowest part of the Underworld, to save an old friend.
Tegan and Sara: Junior High by Tegan Quin, Sara Quin, and Tillie Walden
In this graphic coming-of-age memoir, indie-pop twin-sister duo Tegan and Sara share their junior high experiences of growing apart as they make different friends and take separate paths to understanding their queerness.
High School
Fantasy, romance, and finding your voice
Blood Debts by Terri Benton-Walker
Cristina and Clement, 16-year-old twin heirs to a powerful, magical, dethroned family in New Orleans, must find a way to trust each other and their family’s magic to solve a decade’s old murder and stop another massacre from destroying the city.
Imogen, Obviously Becky Albertalli
Pretending to be her queer best friend Lili’s former girlfriend, heterosexual Imogen Scott spends a lot of time with Lili’s friend Tessa and starts to wonder if her truth was ever all that straight to begin with.
Never Vacation with your Ex by Emily Wibberly
Spending the summer in Malibu with her ex-boyfriend Dean and their families, 17-year-old volleyball star Kaylee finds herself falling for him again for the same reasons and some new ones, forcing her to make a complicated choice.
Stateless by Elizabeth Wein
Stella North is one of twelve young pilots competing in a 1937 air race meant to promote peace in Europe, but when one of her competitors is sabotaged, Stella races to determine who is capable of murder, and who might be the next victim.
Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson
Lou is working in her family’s ice-cream shack with her former best friend, King, who is back in their Canadian prairie town after disappearing three years ago. While King’s friendship makes Lou feel safer, when her family’s business comes under threat, she soon realizes that she can’t ignore her biological father forever.
Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angelina Boulley
With the rising number of missing Indigenous women, her family’s involvement in a murder investigation, and grave robbers profiting off her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry takes matters into her own hands to solve the mystery and reclaim her people’s inheritance.
When You Wish upon a Lantern by Gloria Chao
To save her family’s struggling lantern store, Liya secretly fulfills the wishes people write on the lanterns they send into the sky and, in doing so, rekindles her friendship with Kai, which unexpectedly leads to something more.
Adult Fiction
American Mermaid by Julia Langbein
A former English teacher whose feminist novel about a fierce mermaid is lured to Hollywood to assist in the tale’s big-budget action film adaptation, but is alarmed when she believes her character has come to life to exact revenge.
Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum
Emma Rosenblum’s Bad Summer People is a whip-smart, propulsive debut about infidelity, backstabbing, and murderous intrigue, set against an exclusive summer haven on Fire Island. None of them would claim to be a particularly good person. But even with plenty to gossip about, this season starts out as quietly as any other. Until a body is discovered, face down, off the side of the boardwalk.
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
Considered a “self-made” widow after the disappearance of her husband, Geeta, when other women in the village ask her for help in getting rid of their own no-good husbands, must decide how far she is willing to go to protect her fearsome reputation and the life she’s built.
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
The founder of a guerilla gardening group that plants crops on roadsides, parks and neglected yards fights an enigmatic billionaire over a parcel of land in the new novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries.
The Celebrants by Steven Rowen
Reuniting in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves life is worth living—and living well— five friends find their pact upended when one of them reveals a shocking secret.
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
The star of a popular, but controversial for-profit program in the private prison industry that basically turns prisoners into gladiators contemplates freedom, in the new novel from the New York Times best-selling author of Friday Black.
Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421 by T.J. Newman
When Flight 1421 crashes into the ocean six minutes after take-off, the surviving passengers believe they are the lucky ones until the plane starts to sink to the ocean floor, trapping them inside, and they must wait to be rescued as both air and time run out.
The First Ladies by Marie Benedict
Initially drawn together because of their shared belief in women’s rights and the power of education, civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt fight together for justice and equality, holding each other’s hands through tragedy and triumph.
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.
The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane
Longtime bartender Malcolm Gephardt realizes his dream of owning a bar, while his wife Jess, a lawyer struggling with fertility issues, wonders how to reshape her life, in a novel told over the course of one tumultuous week, laying bare the complexities of marriage, family, longing and desire.
Happy Place by Emily Henry
Despite breaking up months earlier, a picture-perfect couple still haven’t told their friends about the split and attempt to pretend they are still together at an annual Maine getaway, in the new novel from the best-selling author of Book Lovers.
The Haunting of Alexandra by V. Castro
Struggling with a darkness that threatens to consume her, Alejandra discovers she, like the women in her family before her, is being haunted by La Llorona, the vengeful and murderous mother of Mexican Legend, and must summon everything she’s inherited from her foremothers to banish this demon forever.
How to be Eaten by Maria Adelmann
Classic female fairy tale characters, including Little Red Riding Hood and Gretel, are reimagined into modern women who meet in a basement support group to process their traumas and realize they have more in common than they ever supposed.
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Forced to return to the small Southern town where she grew up to sell her late parents’ house, Louise discovers that her and her brother’s old grudges pale in comparison to the terror that still lurks within its walls.
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
Sent into an arranged marriage, Tan Yunxian, forbidden to continue her work as a midwife-in-training as well as see her forever friend Meiling, is ordered to act like proper wife and seeks a way to continue treating women and girls from every level of society in 15th-century China.
The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel
When they accidentally discover a perfectly preserved, 4,000-year-old baby mammoth while on their mother’s scientific expedition in the Arctic, teenage sisters Eve and Vera set off a surprising chain of events, resulting in the birth of a creature that could change the world—and their family.
The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor
During a volatile year of self-discovery in the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, three friends, as each prepares for an uncertain future, head to a cabin to bid goodbye to their former lives—a moment of reckoning that leaves each of them irrevocably altered.
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks
The Academy Award-winning actor and bestselling author presents a thought-provoking novel about the making of a star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film based on a series of comic books that depict the changes in America and American culture since WWII.
Really Good Actually by Monica Heisy
Determined to embrace her new life as a “Surprisingly Young Divorcée,” 29-year-old Maggie, with the help of her tough-loving academic advisor, her newly divorced friend and her group chat, barrels through her first year of singledom, searching for what truly makes her happy.
Rogue Justice by Stacy Abrams
Asked by a fellow law clerk to look into his boss’s death, Supreme Court clerk Avery Keene, after another shocking murder, is led to a list of names – all judges on the FISA Court, also known as America’s “secret court” – and must race the clock to stop an unprecedented national crisis.
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
A sketch writer for a late-night comedy show, Sally Milz pokes fun at the phenomenon of talented but average men who’ve gotten romantically involved with beautiful women and how the reverse never happens until she meets a pop music sensation who flips the script on all her assumptions.
Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb
A gripping page-turner from the celebrated author of book club favorite The Violin Conspiracy: Music professor Bern Hendricks discovers a shocking secret about the most famous American composer of all time—his music may have been stolen from a Black Jazz Age prodigy named Josephine Reed. Determined to uncover the truth that a powerful organization wants to keep hidden, Bern will stop at nothing to right history’s wrongs and give Josephine the recognition she deserves.
The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende
Traces the ripple effects of war and immigration on two children—5-year-old Samuel, whose mother puts him on a Kindertransport train out of Nazi-occupied Austria to England in 1938, and 7-year-old Anita, who boards another train eight decades later to the U.S., where she’s separated from her mother.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
After the death of her literary rival in a freak accident, author June Hayward steals her just-finished masterpiece, sending it to her agent as her own work, but as emerging evidence threatens her success, she discovers just how far she’ll go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
Zero Days by Ruth Ware
When a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, resulting in her husband’s murder, penetration specialist Jack, now the #1 suspect, goes on the run, deciding who she can trust as she races against time to clear her name and find the real killer.
Adult Non-Fiction
Above Ground: Poems by Clint Smith
Above Ground wrestles with how we hold wonder and despair in the same hands, how we carry intimate moments of joy and a collective sense of mourning in the same body. Smith’s lyrical, narrative poems bring the reader on a journey not only through the early years of his children’s lives, but through the changing world in which they are growing up—through the changing world of which we are all a part.
Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope by Sarah Bakewell
A singular examination of humanist traditions as well as a dazzling contribution to its literature, this is an intoxicating, joyful celebration of the human spirit from one of our most beloved writers. And at a moment when we are all too conscious of the world’s divisions, Humanly Possible—brimming with ideas, experiments in living, and respect for the deepest ethical values—serves as a recentering, a call to care for one another, and a reminder that we are all, together, only human.
Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and into the World by Gretchen Rubin
Drawing on cutting-edge science, philosophy, literature and her own efforts to practice what she learns, the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Happiness Project offers profound insights and practical suggestions for heightening our senses and using our powers of perception to live richer lives.
A Living Remedy: A Memoir by Nicole Chung
The best-selling author of All You Can Ever Know returns with a memoir of her experiences as a Korean adoptee and the challenges she faced holding on to family bonds in the face of hardship and tragedy.
The Pacific Northwest Native Plant Primer: 225 Plants for an Earth-Friendly Garden by Kristin Currin
More homeowners than ever before are adding native plants to their gardens. This book shares the best plant choices for the Pacific Northwest and details how gardeners can grow them successfully.
Pageboy by Elliot Page
The Oscar-nominated star who, after the success of Juno, became one of the world’s most beloved actors, reveals how his career turned into a nightmare as he navigated criticism and abuse in Hollywood until he had enough and stepped into who he truly is with defiance, strength and joy.
Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby
In this much-anticipated new collection of hilarious essays, the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author takes us on another outrageously funny tour of all the gory details that make up the true portrait of a life behind the screenshotted depression memes.
Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell
In this thought-provoking, deeply hopeful reframing of time, the author takes us on a journey through other temporal habitats, urging us to become stewards of different rhythms of life, to imagine an existence, identity and source of meaning outside the world of work and profit.
The Teachers: A Year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable, Important Profession by Alexandra Robbins
A riveting, must-read, year-in-the-life account of three teachers, combined with reporting that reveals what’s really going on behind school doors, by New York Times bestselling author and education expert Alexandra Robbins.
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
In this tale of shipwreck, survival and savagery, the #1 New York Times best-selling author of Killers of the Flower Moon recounts the events on His Majesty’s Ship The Wager, a British vessel that left England in 1740 on a secret mission, resulting in a court martial that revealed a shocking truth.
What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
Filled with crazy science, endless curiosity and the author’s signature stick-figure comics, this practical guide for impractical ideas consults the latest research to concisely answer reader’s questions, demonstrating you can learn a lot from examining how the world might work in very specific extreme circumstances.
