Summer is coming and so is one of our favorite pastimes: compiling our summer reading list. Remember back when you were in middle school and you were required to read a certain number of books on the school’s list by the time classes were back in session? Yes, we realize some of you saw this as a chore. But if it weren’t for those lists, we may never have picked up books that have become our personal favorites.

We couldn’t help but get a little excited when we read that Reading is Fundamental is visiting more than 40 D.C. public and charter schools this week to distribute 15,000 new books in an effort to promote good summer reading habits among children. According to the Johns Hopkins Center for Summer Learning, the two-month summer break often results in a learning slide among children, especially those from low-income households.

Here at DCist, we are all about promoting reading. You’re not looking at our site for just the pretty pictures, right? So the staff decided to compile a summer reading list of our own — we suppose, in hopes that when a child walks through Dupont Circle where a loyal DCist reader is sitting by the fountain with one of our recommendations, they’ll think twice about writing off books as some educational requirement. Reading is cool, kids.

Photo by jsmjr.

Filed Under: andrewwiseman, books, capitol hill, children, cormacmccarthy, dcist, dupont circle, johns hopkins, kids, missyfrederick, nicolekidman, onehundredyears, photos, pictures, reading, schools, summer, this week,