2026 Teacher Summer Reading List: 20 Books Worth Your Time (Plus a bonus!)

5 Min Read  •  Professional Development

It’s that time of year again! Our popular annual “Teacher Reading List” series is back. We’ve curated 20 of the very best books for teachers this year (plus a bonus pick we couldn’t leave out) and are sharing them with you in the roundup below. As always, we have some books for your professional growth, as well as some that are just for fun. Here’s to a summer filled with good books and great ideas!

Non-Fiction Inspiration & Big Picture Thinking

1. Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick
   Wharton professor makes the case that AI won’t replace teachers but will change how we work alongside it. English majors and art historians may actually benefit MORE from AI than coders. Sound familiar?
2. The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt — TEAM PICK
   Research behind what we’ve been feeling in our classrooms: the shift to a phone-based childhood is reshaping adolescent mental health. Practical, actionable, and gives us real language for the conversations we need to be having. Our whole team agrees: essential.
3. The Creativity Choice by Dr. Zorana Ivcevic Pringle
   Yale researcher dives into why some people act on creative impulses while others let them slip away…and the psychological tools needed to navigate the creative process. Feels like the research backbone to everything we teach.
4. Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes by Morgan Housel
   Flips the script on prediction and asks: what NEVER changes? The things that stay the same are far more useful for decision-making than the things that shift. Short and perfect for a summer afternoon.
5. Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
   What happens AFTER ideas tip? Explores how good ideas can be corrupted and epidemics spread in ways we don’t expect. This is a thought-provoking companion for anyone leading change efforts.

Educator Professional Development

6. Creativity’s Edge: Unleashing Humanity’s Greatest Advantage in the Age of AI by Susan Riley — TEAM PICK
   In a world racing toward automation, creativity isn’t just a nice extra. It’s our greatest advantage. Specific practices to build creative thinking skills and tools to measure growth in K-12 and beyond.
7. Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives by Daisy Fancourt
   The WHO’s arts-and-health director draws on decades of neuroscience and epidemiology to show measurable benefits of arts engagement. Research-backed ammunition for why the arts matter.
8. Reconnect: Building School Culture for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging by Doug Lemov, Hilary Lewis, Darryl Williams & Denarius Frazier
   Hands-on solutions from the Teach Like a Champion team for rebuilding a school culture where students genuinely feel they belong. Practical and specific in all the right ways.
9. Just Do This… by Steven A. Bollar
   From art teacher to principal to Superintendent, this book offers clear, actionable steps you can use right away in your classroom, school, or district. Simple, like it should be.
10. Deliberate Creative Teams: How to Lead for Innovative Results by Amy Climer, PhD
    A structured, intentional process for cultivating creativity within teams. This selection is packed with exercises, tools, and relatable stories. The blueprint for PLCs, grade-level teams, or whole-school initiatives.

Fiction Titles

11. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi — TEAM PICK
    A stranger buys pencil portraits and gives each one to the person depicted, asking only for their story. A #1 New York Times bestseller about generosity, connection, and being truly seen.
12. James by Percival Everett
    Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and Kirkus Prize winner. A breathtaking reimagining of Huckleberry Finn told from Jim’s perspective. If you read one literary fiction title this summer, make it this one.
13. Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
    Three very different sisters navigate grief in New York. This book is tender and fierce all at once. A Read with Jenna pick about how families break apart and find their way back.
14. We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
    A retired cop and his daughter-in-law on the run from an assassin. Globe-trotting, laugh-out-loud fun from the author of The Thursday Murder Club. Don’t overthink it. Just enjoy the ride.
15. My Friends by Fredrik Backman
    Four teenagers whose unlikely friendship changes a stranger’s life twenty-five years later. 2025 Goodreads Choice Award winner for Best Fiction, this is funny, devastating, and deeply human.
16. The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
    From the Pulitzer-winning author of Olive Kitteridge comes a quiet, powerful novel about a high school history teacher and the secrets that define his closest relationships. The teacher protagonist makes it feel like it was written just for us.
17. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
    A lone astronaut uses science (and a LOT of problem-solving) to save Earth. The most fun you’ll have reading about astrophysics. If you teach STEM or STEAM, you’re going to want to share this one.
18. The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon
    Historical fiction at its best! Based on Grace O’Malley, the Irish folk heroine who stood toe-to-toe with Queen Elizabeth I. Sweeping, adventurous, and full of fire.
19. Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer
    From the Pulitzer-winning author of Less. Here’s a sun-soaked Tuscan novel about life, art, and becoming who you really are. Rated the most-anticipated book of 2026 by People, TIME, and Oprah Daily.
20. Where the Wildflowers Grow by Terah Shelton Harris
    After a devastating accident, a woman retreats to a secluded flower farm and discovers community, tenderness, and the slow work of healing. A quiet, hopeful read to close out your summer.

Bonus Book!

Trust by Hernan Diaz — Pulitzer Prize Winner

Four interlocking narratives circle a mysterious Wall Street financier and his wife in 1920s New York. The kind of book that makes you rethink everything you just read. Currently being developed as an HBO series, so read it now before everyone’s talking about it.

Need even more ideas? Browse our past round-ups from 2025, 2024, and 2022 to build a truly binge-worthy TBR pile.

Here’s to a restorative, imagination-fueling summer…and to heading back in August brimming with new ideas!