Avoid the dreaded summer slide with our booklists for every grade!

If your kids are resisting reading this summer, you have James Patterson's permission to make them do it! "Just enforce it," he says in a this recent interview with the Washington Post, "It's tough love a little bit."

Patterson goes on to say that one of the most important things is to make sure your kids are reading books for pleasure, ones they are going to love. And that's where we come in!

For the first time last year, we created our own book lists for grades K - high school, with suggestions for summer reading, and these lists were so popular we've done it again this year! We've chosen fun, exciting books that are new in paperback, or that we think may have been overlooked. We've added the best new hardcovers, sprinkled in non-fiction, and a dash of graphic novels, to create lists that offer something for everyone. And, of course, we're always happy to come up with new suggestions, or to create a list just for you.

Our lists are collected by grade level. You'll find the lists and the books on display in the store. You can also review the lists and purchase from our website. Click on your chosen grade level on the list below to go straight to the list, or look for the 'Summer Reading' tab on the website menu.

Preschool and Kindergarten: PIcture Books
Early Readers Grades 1 and 2
Grades 3 and 4
Grades 5 and 6
Grades 7 and 8
High School/Young Adult

We're also collecting summer reading lists from local schools so we can stock up with this year's popular required reads. Please let us know if you would like us to obtain a particular list--or bring a copy in for us! We'd also like to urge you to pick up your books early in the summer--we hate having to disappoint last-minute readers if we don't have a book the week, or even the day before school starts. (Yes, it happens a lot! With high schoolers in particular...)

So now we're ready for summer, how about you?

We were thrilled to discover that the elementary students of Denver Public Schools dedicated their book of poetry to our owner, Sue Lubeck, and The Bookies Bookstore!

The anthology, Everyone is a Masterpiece, includes works by 233 students from 29 different schools, with poetry in both Spanish and English and original art.

And, of course, there's that beautiful dedication:
"This book is dedicated to Sue Lubeck,
Denver's First Lady of Literature,
and to the staff at The Bookies -
that sanctuary, treasure-house, and temple for Denver's young readers and writers"

We're super excited to be the location for the launch of the book! This Saturday, May 20th at 1:30 p.m., we'll be joined by the editor of the collection, along with several of the authors, who will be reading their original works. We'll also have refreshments, and our summer reading lists will be on display, so you can check our top picks for this summer.

Enjoy the better weather; get the kids outdoors! As the wonderful new picture book, Frank and Lucky Get Schooled (see review above) shows, you can find a great education in the world around you! We've got the books and tools to help you make the most of the great outdoors, for kids of all ages. Schoolyard or backyard, city park or wild woodland, there's something to enjoy and learn wherever you go. And kids just love any opportunity to be outside!  

We were very sad to hear of the recent death of Denver pediatrician, Jules Amer. Amer's autobiography, Intimate Strangers: Stories from a Lifetime of Practicing Medicine, was our bestseller of the year a few years ago. The most remarkable thing about the book, was the number of customers who picked it up and said "he was my/my children's/my grandchildren's' pediatrician and he was such a wonderful man." It was clear that Dr. Amer was a much-loved part of the Denver community.