2026 Reading Challenge Crossover Books

Book Summary

As London is emerging from WWII, Juliet Ashton, a writer, is looking for the subject of her next book. She begins exchanging letters with a man she’s never met – a native of the island of Guernsey. Through their letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of the man and his eccentric friends. Though they range from pig farmers to phrenologists, they are all literature lovers.

As Juliet learns about their tastes in books, she also comes to understand the impact that the German occupation has had on their lives.

This is a great choice for those who love epistolary novels, which are told through written correspondence between the characters.

Book Summary

Less than four months after taking office, US President Garfield was shot twice in a train station in Washington, DC, by a disgruntled man with political aspirations. Doctors tried to save his life, but life-saving attempts led to infections as his surgeon, Dr. Bliss, didn’t believe in sanitizing hands or equipment.

A bullet remained lodged in his body, but it needed to be removed for the best chance of survival. Inventor Alexander Graham Bell thought he could develop new technology to locate the bullet, but it was a race against time and against a doctor who didn’t embrace evolving medical practices.

Book Summary

Ten-year-old Auggie has a facial deformity that previously prevented him from attending a traditional school. In his own words, “I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.”

Wonder begins from Auggie’s point of view as he starts 5th grade, but soon switches to include his classmates. While there are also chapters told from the perspective of his teenage sister, her boyfriend, and others, Auggie remains the focus of the story throughout. The multiple perspectives create a beautiful portrait of Auggie’s community as they struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance.

Book Summary

Sixteen-year-old Kate has been fighting leukemia since she was very young. Thirteen-year-old Anna is the healthy one, yet she’s undergone countless surgeries and transfusions. That’s because Anna was conceived, by way of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, to be a bone marrow match for Kate.

Most teenagers begin to question who they really are, but for Anna, this question is much more complex. That leads her to a decision that has the potential to tear her family apart, and may even have fatal consequences for Kate.

Book Summary

Bernadette lives with her husband and her teenage daughter in Seattle, a city where she’s never felt she fits in. She was once a renowned architect, but now spends most of her time in the house, hiding from the other moms of her daughter’s elite prep school.

Unlike her Microsoft employee husband, Elgie, who has fully embraced the granola-eating, public transport-using, bike-riding culture of 2010s Seattle, Bernadette spends her days at home, relying on a virtual assistant in India for many of her daily tasks. This becomes a real problem when her daughter’s stellar report card earns her a family cruise to Antarctica, and Bernadette becomes overwhelmed by the planning and preparations. When Bernadette disappears before the trip, her daughter Bee is determined to track her down, unraveling a web of secrets.

Much of this book is told in epistolary form, including notes from Bee’s school, email exchanges between Bernadette and her virtual assistant, and catty moms communicating about Bernadette’s eccentricities.

Book Summary

The Good Lord Bird is a unique work of historical fiction that offers a fresh and sometimes humorous perspective on the abolitionist movement and the notorious John Brown. The novel tells the story of Brown and Henry Shackleford, a young slave who is nicknamed “Onion” by Brown after he is mistaken for a girl. 

Onion joins Brown’s ragtag army, which is preparing to raid the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in 1859. Along the way, Onion witnesses the horrors of slavery and the violence of Brown’s abolition campaign firsthand. Despite its serious subject matter, The Good Lord Bird is also a coming-of-age story that follows Onion’s journey of self-discovery.

Book Summary

Jack and his mother live in a single room. To five-year-old Jack, the room is his entire world – where he eats, sleeps, reads, and plays – he knows nothing else. But for his mother, the room is a prison where she’s been held captive for the past seven years. She is devising an escape plan, but are they prepared for what comes next if the plan actually works?

This book is told entirely from Jack’s pragmatic perspective, and it’s also a beautiful celebration of the parent-child bond.

Book Summary

Melody, a nearly 11-year-old girl, is different from other 5th graders. She has a photographic memory, so she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She also has cerebral palsy, which has caused her to be unable to speak, move, or communicate with anyone, and she is constantly frustrated with trying to tell people what she wants.

Despite being smarter than her classmates (and the adults trying to diagnose her), they treat her as mentally challenged. Still, Melody refuses to be defined by CP, and she’s determined to make sure everyone knows it.

Book Summary

This is the first book in the Little House on the Prairie series, based on the real-life adventures of author Laura Ingalls Wilder. Little Laura is just four in this first book, and she grows up throughout the nine books of the series (not reaching age 13 until the 6th book).

Little House in the Big Woods takes place in Wisconsin in 1871, where Laura lives in a log cabin with her Pa, her Ma, and her sisters. This first book introduces readers to the challenges of pioneer life, and in later books, the family travels by covered wagon from Wisconsin to Kansas, where they establish a homestead.