20 Titles for Young Gamers – Summer Reading 2020

I’ve been mulling around the idea of creating summer reading lists this year. It’s been slow going as so much of m energy is put into figuring out how to run a library during a global pandemic! But, I didn’t want to re-create the wheel offering “Summer Reading for 5th Graders” either. Those types of lists can be found all over the Internet! And although they’re super helpful for parents looking for a great starting point for summer reading plans, I wanted to go a different route.

This year, I decided to focus on creating lists around different interests – sports, the arts, gaming, etc. Each list will include 20 books and will be all ages from board books to young adult titles. The lists will also include various formats and hopefully both fiction and nonfiction titles.

Today we’re focusing on gamers! Games are a huge part of life for kids – whether video or computer games or board games – they’re so popular! I’m sharing books inspired by gaming and just maybe the kids will put down the controller for just a bit and read!

20 Titles for Young Gamers

1. The Boy Who Thought Outside the Box: The Story of Video Game Inventor Ralph Baer by Marcie Wessels, illustrated by Beatriz Castro
2. Coding Games in Scratch by Jon Woodcock
3. Emmy in the Key of Code by Aimee Lucido
4. Epic by Conor Kostick
5. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein
6. Feed by M.T. Anderson
7. The Gauntlet by Karuna Riazi
8. Geek Girl Rising: Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech by Samantha Parent Walravens and Heather Cabot
9. Grace Hopper: Queen of Computer Code by Laurie Wallmark, illustrated by Katy Wu
10. High Five by Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri
11. Hilo: The Boy Who Crashed to Earth by Judd Winick, colorist – Guy Major
12. How to Code a Sandcastle by Josh Funk, illustrated by Sara Palacios
13. I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest
14. In Real Life by Cory Doctorow, illustrated by Jen Wang
15. Level Up by Gene Luen Yang, illustrated by Thien Pham
16. My First Coding Book by D.K. Publishing
17. My Life as a Gamer by Janet Tashjian, illustrated by Jake Tashjian
18. Slay by Brittney Morris
19. The Tapper Twins Go to War (with each other) by Geoff Rodkey
20. Warcross by Marie Lu

More Resources

If you’re looking for more great titles, I created read-alike lists to many popular video games. Check out all of these great lists:

• Destiny
• Grand Theft Auto
• Disney Infinity
• Call of Duty
• Just Dance
• Fallout
• The Legend of Zelda
• Skylanders
• Halo
• Mario Bros.
• Sports Games
• Assassin’s Creed
• Minecraft
• Pokémon

If you’re looking for even more game-inspired titles, check HarperCollins list of Books for Gamers!

Check back every day this week for a new summer reading list:

• Activists
• Artists
• Outdoor Enthusiasts
• Readers
• Sports Stars
• STEM Enthusiasts