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ON THE GO, sophomore Gio Musiello reads one of her favorites, “Crecent City” by Sarah J. Maas, in front of a café in Los Angeles, California. Musiello had previously been walking around and getting to know the city. “Whenever I am on a trip, I like to take a book with me. Stopping by to read in a small café makes me happy,” Musiello said. Photo by Vanessa Musiello

While enjoying summer break, students read books like, “Every Summer After,” “The Summer of Broken Rules,” and “The Summer I Turned Pretty” — all popular reads featured on “BookTok.” “I love reading books by season. If you told me to read a winter book during the summer, I could not enjoy it. The main reason I like reading books is because I can try and relate to them,” freshman Emma Levi said. Photos by Ariella Zecchini

Sophomore Julia Fogel sat on her balcony as she read her summer reading book A Long Way Down, by Jason Reynolds. All grades had reading assigned over the summer, and Fogel decided to take her assignment outside.

“I had to do it for school, so I decided that a way I could enjoy it more was by reading with a nice view, or on the beach,” Fogel said.

Besides school assignments, reading for fun started to become a trend over the summer. “BookTok” was a trend on the social media platform TikTok, encouraging reading by featuring users talking about their favorite books and providing book recommendations. Using the hashtag #booktok, the trending topic had over 74.4 billion views. Book stores, such as Barnes and Noble, displayed many of the books recommended on the site. YouTube joined in the trend with vloggers sharing their favorite book picks with detailed reviews.

“I read in the past, but really got into it again this summer. I started watching this really popular Youtuber that a lot of teenage girls watch, and she started posting videos about how she is starting to read,” sophomore Brooklynn Lodde said.

Aside from reading for fun, television shows based on popular books were also on the rise. This was the case for “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” based on the New York Times bestselling book trilogy. News about the series, which aired on Amazon, blew up on TikTok and received a 91% Tomatometer Score on Rotten Tomatoes. Excitement surrounding the series encouraged some to start reading the books.

“My friends and I decided to read the books after seeing that the show was going to come out. The trailers were all over TikTok and we could not wait. Once the show came out, I was so glad to be able to put characters to faces.” sophomore Catalina Palacio said.

Story by Ariella Zecchini

30.9% Romance

21.8% Thrillers/Horror

9.1% Adventure

18.2% Fantasy

20% Non-Fiction this that or

There are so many different book genres, and these were the summer favorites based on a poll of 100 students..

RELAXING Sophomore Julia Fogel sits on her balcony overlooking the ocean and catches up on summer reading. Although this was a school assignment, Fogel also began reading for fun during the summer. “I think it’s good that people are getting into reading. Sometimes reading seems tedious, but reading books that you enjoy is actually really fun,” Fogel said. Photo by Ariella Zecchini