Summer Reading!

Summer is an important time for children to take a break from school to focus on their hobbies, fun, playing outdoors, biking, swimming, travelling, and so on! One often overlooked summer activity, however, is reading. Some of my best summer memories are reading good books – usually on a balcony, by a lake, up a tree, or anywhere else outdoors!

It can be tough to dive into a new book at first, but after a few pages or chapters it absorbs you and can be an amazing way for children to run wild with their imagination during the summer months. And as a bonus they will strengthen their reading skills before next school year.

So, for one of my final blog posts this year, I want to encourage (not force!) as many students as possible to pick up a book to read this summer. Or, if not reading, my second advice would be to find a good audio book and get into that! Audiobooks can also be a great way to digest a book and also practice listening and comprehension skills.

Even better if you can find a book or audiobook in English! There are several book stores with English books around Bratislava that you can check out, for example, Martinus books. You can also order books online for delivery or pick-up.

Some children prefer to read fiction and some prefer to read non-fiction. Personally, when I was younger I always preferred to read fiction in the summer time as it felt more imaginative and less like work.

Below are a few suggestions of exciting and captivating English fictional books and book series, a few of which were my absolute favourites growing up:

• Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling)

• Percy Jackson series (Rick Riordan)

• Chronicles of Narnia (C. S. Lewis)

• Shadow Children series (Margaret Haddix) – one of my favourites, see picture below!

• Thief Lord (Cornelia Funke)

• Holes (Louis Sachar)

• The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series (J.R.R. Tolkien)

• Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)

• Hatchet (Gary Paulsen)

If you want any more suggestions, please feel free to email me: beadle@eisbratislava.org

Enjoy your summer reading! 🙂