Lake Park High School Summer Reading 2026
Lake Park Reading Website Link
All students are encouraged to read one (or more) books before returning to school in the fall.
Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay
Everything We Never Had
by Randy Ribay

From the author of the National Book Award finalist Patron Saints of Nothing comes an emotionally charged, moving novel about four generations of Filipino American boys grappling with identity, masculinity, and their fraught father-son relationships. Winner of the APALA medal, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Fiction Award, and longlisted for the National Book Award. Now in paperback! Watsonville, 1930. Francisco Maghabol barely ekes out a living in the fields of California. As he spends what little money he earns at dance halls and faces increasing violence from white men in town, Francisco wonders if he should've never left the Philippines. Stockton, 1965. Between school days full of prejudice from white students and teachers and night shifts working at his aunt's restaurant, Emil refuses to follow in the footsteps of his labor organizer father, Francisco. He's going to make it in this country no matter what or who he has to leave behind. Denver, 1983. Chris is determined to prove that his overbearing father, Emil, can't control him. However, when a missed assignment on ancestral history sends Chris off the football team and into the library, he discovers a desire to know more about Filipino historyeven if his father dismisses his interest as un-American and unimportant. Philadelphia, 2020. Enzo struggles to keep his anxiety in check as a global pandemic breaks out and his abrasive grandfather moves in. While tensions are high between his dad and his lolo, Enzo's daily walks with Lolo Emil have him wondering if maybe he can help bridge their decades-long rift. Told in multiple perspectives, Everything We Never Had unfolds like a beautifully crafted nesting doll, where each Maghabol boy forges his own path amid heavy family and societal expectations, passing down his flaws, values, and virtues to the next generation, until it's up to Enzo to see how he can braid all these strands and men together.
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
The Great Alone
by Kristin Hannah

#1 New York Times Instant BestsellerIn Kristin Hannah's The Great Alone, a desperate family seeks a new beginning in the near-isolated wilderness of Alaska only to find that their unpredictable environment is less threatening than the erratic behavior found in human nature. Alaska, 1974. Ernt Allbright came home from the Vietnam War a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes the impulsive decision to move his wife and daughter north where they will live off the grid in America's last true frontier. Cora will do anything for the man she loves, even if means following him into the unknown. Thirteen-year-old Leni, caught in the riptide of her parents' passionate, stormy relationship, has little choice but to go along, daring to hope this new land promises her family a better future. In a wild, remote corner of Alaska, the Allbrights find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the newcomers' lack of preparation and dwindling resources. But as winter approaches and darkness descends, Ernt's fragile mental state deteriorates. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own.
Project Hail Mary (Movie Tie-In) by Andy Weir
Project Hail Mary (Movie Tie-In)
by Andy Weir

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Now a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, with a screenplay by Drew Goddard A lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this propulsive (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science--from the author of The Martian. HUGO AWARD FINALIST - NEW YORK TIMES READER PICK: 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY - ONE OF THE YEAR'S BEST BOOKS: Parade, Newsweek, New York Public Library, Polygon, Shelf Awareness, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library JournalRyland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission--and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it's up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery--and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he's got to do it all alone. Or does he? Hailed by USA Today as an epic story of redemption, discovery, and cool speculative sci-fi, Project Hail Mary is an irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver.
Stephen McCranie's Space Boy Volume 1 by Stephen McCranie
Stephen McCranie's Space Boy Volume 1
by Stephen McCranie

A sci-fi drama of a high school aged girl who belongs in a different time, a boy possessed by emptiness as deep as space, an alien artifact, mysterious murder, and a love that crosses light years. To Amy, everyone has a flavor. Her mom is the flavor of mint--sharp and bright. Her dad is like hot chocolate--sweet and full of gentle warmth. Amy lives on a mining colony in out in deep space, but when her dad loses his job the entire family is forced to move back to Earth. Amy says goodbye to her best friend Jemmah and climbs into a cryotube where she will spend the next 30 years frozen in a state of suspended animation, hurtling in a rocket toward her new home. Her life will never be the same, but all she can think about is how when she gets to Earth, Jemmah will have grown up without her. When Amy arrives on Earth, she feels like an alien in a strange land. The sky is beautiful but gravity is heavy and the people are weird. Stranger still is the boy she meets at her new school--a boy who has no flavor.
The Getaway List by Emma Lord
The Getaway List
by Emma Lord

The day of her high school graduation, Riley realizes two things: One, that she has spent the last four years trying so hard to be a Good Kid for her mom that she has no idea who she really is anymore, and two, she has no idea what she wants because of it. The solution? Pack her bags and move to New York for the summer, where her childhood best friend Tom and co-creator of The Getaway List -- a list of all the adventures they've wanted to do together since he moved away -- will hopefully help her get in touch with her old adventurous self, and pave the road to a new future. Riley isn't sure what to expect from Tom, who has been distant since his famous mom's scriptwriting career pulled him away. But when Riley arrives in the city, their reconnection is as effortless as it was when they were young--except with one, unexpected complication that will pull Riley's feelings in a direction she didn't know they could take. As she, Tom, and their newfound friends work their way through the delightfully chaotic items on The Getaway List, Riley learns that sometimes the biggest adventure is not one you take, but one you feel in your heart--
Falling Like Leaves by Misty Wilson
Falling Like Leaves
by Misty Wilson

A New York Times bestseller Gilmore Girls meets Jenny Han in this delightfully autumnal small-town romance (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) about a city girl stuck in a quaint small town who must confront her future and her old flame while the town prepares for an annual fall festival. Ellis has a plan: spend her senior fall prepping her application for Columbia, get into their journalism program, and set the foundation for a respectable career. So when her parents announce that not only are they separating, but Ellis has to move with her mom from New York City to Bramble Falls, Connecticut, to live with her aunt and cousin, it couldn't come at a worse time. From past summers spent in Connecticut, Ellis knows Bramble Falls is idyllic and charming. But it also seems to be full of distractions. There's local barista Cooper Barnett, Ellis's one-time best friend and first kiss who now wants nothing to do with her. And then there's the Falling Leaves Festival, a local autumnal celebration run by Ellis's aunt where people from all over come to see Bramble Falls's beautiful foliage. The house is stuffed with decorations, and every conversation seems to center around the festival. Dragged to every oh-so-charming event from apple picking to pumpkin carving, Ellis can't stop bumping into Cooper...or falling for the quaint town and its quirky residents. As her return to Manhattan gets repeatedly delayed, Ellis finds herself caught between two very different places--and the futures they represent.
Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber
Once Upon a Broken Heart
by Stephanie Garber

The IRRESISTIBLE first novel in the #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING Once Upon a Broken Heart series, about love, curses, and the lengths that people will go to for happily ever after For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings . . . until she learns that the love of her life will marry another. Desperate to stop the wedding and to heal her wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic, but wicked, Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses, to be given at the time and place of his choosing. But after Evangeline's first promised kiss, she learns that bargaining with an immortal is a dangerous game and that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she'd pledged. He has plans for Evangeline, plans that will either end in the greatest happily ever after, or the most exquisite tragedy. Continue the adventure in The Ballad of Never After, A Curse for True Love, and The Mirror of Infinite Endings Also by Stephanie Garber: The Caraval Series - Caraval - Legendary - Finale- Spectacular Alchemy of Secrets
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Piranesi
by Susanna Clarke

The award-winning, New York Times bestselling fantasy sensation that Madeline Miller called, a miraculous and luminous feat of storytelling, Piranesi is an intoxicating, hypnotic novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality from the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
Murder Between Friends by Liz Lawson
Murder Between Friends
by Liz Lawson

Told in three voices, this is the story of Grace, who questions her own eyewitness testimony that convicted Henry's brother Jake in a murder trial, leaving her former childhood friends Henry and Ally no choice but to join forces with her to prove Jake's innocence.
That's Not My Name by Megan Lally
That's Not My Name
by Megan Lally

Shivering and bruised, a teen wakes up on the side of a dirt road with no memory of how she got there--or who she is. A passing officer takes her to the police station, and not long after, a frantic man arrives. He's been searching for her for hours. He has her school ID, her birth certificate, and even family photos. He is her father. Her name is Mary. Or so he says. When Lola slammed the car door and stormed off into the night, Drew thought they just needed some time to cool off. Except Lola disappeared, and the sheriff, his friends, and the whole town are convinced Drew murdered his girlfriend. Forget proving his innocence, he needs to find her before it's too late. The longer Lola is missing, the fewer leads there are to follow...and the more danger they both are in.--Publisher marketing.
Bloomingdale Public Library
101 Fairfield Way, Bloomingdale, Illinois 60108
630-529-3120

https://mybpl.org