Mom’s Must Read: 5 Required Summer Reads You Should Read Along with Your Child

Mom’s Must Read:
5 Required Summer Reads You Should
Read Along with Your Child

As summer winds down kids might not be prepared to go back to school. Many of them have required summer reading they must finish before school starts. The good news about summer reading is it forces kids to read a book they might not otherwise read. The bad news about summer reading is that sometimes the subject matter involves difficult situations. The solution to this summer reading dilemma? Read the book along with your child! Since we are readers in my house, my kids are usually a year ahead on the summer reading list. This gives me an opportunity to read the book when my kid does and then discuss it with them in the comfort and safety of our home. When the material is discussed at school my child is comfortable discussing the subject matter because it’s not new or unfamiliar to them. For controversial topics, I get a chance to remind them of our family’s beliefs before they confront opposing views in the classroom. Here are five summer reads you can read along with your child.

1. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

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Speak is such a powerful book and so relevant to teens today. Anderson is an important voice in young adult and middle grade literature.

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.

The secret our protagonist is keeping is that she was raped at this party before the book even begins and the secret unfolds during the course of the story. You're probably thinking that you don't want your child to read about rape. To be sure, this is a difficult topic but one that teens are certainly experiencing, which is probably why this title is on may summer reading lists.

Read More: What I'll Tell My Kids About: The Steubenville Rape Case