This year as part of the Mythical Maze Summer Reading Challenge 2014 we've decided to provide a list of top reads for the young people who spend their summer holidays as Summer Reading Challenge volunteers. The books are all new 'must-reads' for this summer, chosen by and for participating Reading Activists.

This complements the book collections of suggested reads for children taking part in the Challenge which we compile each year.

Selecting the books

Publishers sent us a substantial collection of finished books, manuscripts, and top secret early proofs to consider for this collection. With the help of librarians we whittled the list down to 24 and enlisted the help of Reading Activists from across the country to pick their top ten summer reads. Here are some of the comments they gave about some of the books which made it into the collection:

Boy Nobody
"Sounds good. Sounds as if it's Alex Rider's unknown twin brother who's an assassin." "Really interesting. Cover looks cool!"

Stay Where You Are & then Leave
"Looks really good and it's by the author who wrote The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, so it's going to be interesting."

Weirdos V Quimboids
"The blurb is great and I was laughing a lot during the first few chapters."
"Funny, striking and definitely readable!"

The final ten books

The following books made it through the selection process onto the list of top ten books for young people to read this summer:

Bombmaker by Claire McFall
Boy Nobody by Zadoff Allen
Find Me by Romily Bernard
Half Bad by Sally Green
Half My Facebook Friends Are Ferrets by J. A. Buckle
Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
Slated by Teri Terry
Stay Where You Are and then Leave by John Boyne
The Private Blog of Joe Cowley by Ben Davis
Weirdos V Quimboids by Natasha Desborough

Get Involved

Libraries can download the full list and can now order the book collections via their usual library supplier.

Find out how to become a young volunteer for the 2014 Summer Reading Challenge and get involved.

If you've read any of the books on the list we'd love to know what you think about them. Contact us via Facebook or Twitter.