2025 Kids’ Summer Reading List
As Seen on CTV Your Morning
Summer reading time is arguably the best reading time! Here are seven new-ish titles for kids and teens, as seen on CTV Your Morning on July 10th.
Kids Under 10
These three titles for younger children (or whole family reading) celebrate the outdoors. In the whimsical, rhyming picture book Sand Cakes, a kid creates amazing culinary delights out of the debris she finds at the beach, inspiring similar play for your next beach trip. In the new hybrid fiction/non-fiction Little Habitats graphic novel series (ages 5-9), kids are introduced to Barnacle Bay, a place full of silly characters, lots of puns, and facts about marine life. A Kid’s Guide to Plants of the Great Lakes Region is a fantastic resource for families who find themselves gardening, hiking, camping, or otherwise outside in this location. Including tips for plant identification, recipes and activities to do outside, this is a summer gem with something for the whole family. Not near the Great Lakes? Be sure to check out the Pacific Northwest title in this same series.
Kids ages 9-12
The City of Lost Cats features a premise that will be ‘catnip’ to many readers- a house full of cats in need of assistance from a savvy kid! This is a charming story told from multiple points of view- including those of cats and birds- about the importance of community. Carousel Summer is a graphic novel that fits under one of my favourite sub-genres, ‘the summer it all changed.’ Summer is looking bleak for Lucy, until she befriends Anais, the daughter of an artist hired to help restore the old carnival for the town’s 150th anniversary. As the summer progresses, Lucy finds that her feelings for Anais are developing into something else. A poignant first crush story with tender conversations on gender identity. The Factory is a fast-paced sci-fi adventure in which kids deemed unwanted or from struggling financial backgrounds sign-up for a mysterious program at an institution known as The Factory. When it becomes clear that what is being extracted from the kids is putting them in danger, three participants get to the bottom of it. Great book for kids who liked my sci-fi novel, The Winnowing.
Teens
Xavier wakes up one morning at the cottage to find that it’s been moved. The lake is gone and the world around it has changed completely, stranding him and his dad and pregnant step mum…but where? Best of All Worlds has a killer sci-fi premise that keeps turning up the tension to an ending that begs to be discussed. Following the death of her twin sister, Evie goes to a mysterious boarding school surrounded by an ominous wood that turns especially creepy (and deadly) in the night. The Afterdark is an enticing blend of gothic fiction and queer romance with a horror sensibility.