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During Powell's Summer Reading Challenge 2021 — our first-ever online challenge! — we received over 2600 submissions from 44 states and the District of Columbia. We heard from kids, teens, and adults of all ages, and were blown away by the diversity of everyone's favorite picks (out of the roughly 13,000 books read by participants this summer, over 9,000 of them were unique titles) and by the eloquence, wit, and enthusiasm of everyone's book reviews. Here is a list of a few of our favorites from kids and adults, lovingly compiled by reader recommendation fan and bookseller, Sarah R.

"I liked Pea Bee and Jay because it tells you that even though you hear people are mean, they might not actually be. Jay was nice in real life even though Pea and Bee thought birds were mean." — Lilah M.

"Reading has allowed me to travel the world and inhabit different lives during the pandemic. I couldn't possibly pick one favorite, but a book that moved and surprised me was Charlotte McConaghy's Migrations. She masterfully evokes the cold inner landscape that can accompany our feelings of inadequacy, regret and fear, often reflecting it in the outer landscape as well, yet expressing it all with warmth and compassion. It's a thrilling, unique, heart breaking, uplifting read and I'm eager to read her new Once There Were Wolves." — Jeanne R.

"All the Wrong Questions book 1 Who Could that Be at this hour was amazing to read! Edge of your seat, can't go to sleep until you finish the chapter and then try to start just one more before your mom notices, and then finally you just have to put the book down because there is so much to think about and your eyelids feel so heavy." — Fiona W.

"A Total Waste of Space-Time is laugh-out-loud funny, literally! My mom kept reminding me my brother was sleeping, but I couldn't hold it in. I kept saying 'I know, sorry, mom, but just listen to this part....' Another keeper, i'll be saving up to buy this one for many re-reads in the future!" — Fiona W.

"An N. K. Jemisin book is like an ice cream sandwich on a hot day. As much as you want to savor it, that's just not going to happen. I refuse to take The Stone Sky out of the freezer until I have a long weekend and don't have to worry about sleeping." — Katherine S.

"84, Charing Cross Road was the gemmiest of book gems. What an homage to not only books, but those who sell them. I think I might start writing letters to Indie booksellers." — Maggie M.

"In Hug Machine, I like when the hug machine hugs the ice cream truck." — Henry Sam F.

"Every time I pick up a Bender book, I fall in love with language again." — Elizabeth H.

"One City's Wilderness: Portland's Forest Park has been my companion during this pandemic. I was inspired by a 20-year-old friend who is in great enough condition to hike the entire 30 miles during one day. Whew! I'm a little older at 67, but made it my goal to hike the entire Wildwood Trail... just not all at once. The book describes driving directions, trailheads, trails to a T. Wonderful guidebook!" — Deborah M.

"Cultish is the kind of book where it has somehow managed to weasel its way into most of my conversations. Amanda Montell is a both a skilled writer and language scholar, and now that I know the language of cults, I can't seem to stop seeing or talking about them." — Abigail L.

"I usually find biographies boring, or too dense, or overwhelmed by minutiae, but These Fevered Days is wonderfully readable and brings the unusual life and personality of Emily Dickinson to life. An original approach and a wonderful read!" — Margaret H. M.

"The House in the Cerulean Sea was the first fantasy book I have really loved since adolescence!" — Catherine M.

"Project Hail Mary introduced me to a love I never knew I could have for the sci-fi genre! I've been picking up more sci-fi books since I finished PHM a couple weeks ago. I laughed so hard and experienced that lump-in-my-throat sadness so many times through this book that I just got to say, this book is really quite some trip." — Shirley W.

"I had never read a horror or thriller book before, and by page four of The Final Girl Support Group I was hooked! It was very captivating all the way through with a good couple of twists. It was chilling reading through what many of the characters had gone through. I loved this book and am trying to get everyone I know to pick it up!" — Alexis A.

“I don't know how it took me 31 years to read some Kurt Vonnegut books, but I'm so happy I finally did!!” — Laura F.

"Somehow I managed to make my way through high school having never read John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, so when I finally got to it this summer I was astounded at what I had missed. It was a fantastic novel, quite simple in premise but containing a depth of emotion and relationship that was both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. It is, simply put, masterful." — Gabriel D.

"After reading The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, I decided to read some of the original 'marriage plots' by Jane Austen. It was my first time reading Persuasion and I absolutely LOVED it. It's the perfect novel: Austen is witty, insightful, reflective, etc. The characters are SO human and perfectly timeless. It was so delightful to read, and I wish I could read it for the first time again!" — Keremsa G.

"The Plague by Albert Camus is a novel that follows the lives of people living during a fictional plague epidemic in Oran, Algeria, in the 1940s. This plague is startlingly similar to the COVID-19 pandemic, and makes one feel as if Camus predicted the future. The characters are split up from the ones they love, must quarantine, they constantly check the charts recording infections, and mourn for deaths, just as we have to do in present times. The writing in this novel is vivid, and the characters seem nothing more than real. The story drags on just as real life, making one feel as if they live inside the book. As COVID seems to be nearing an end, this book becomes more prevalent than ever. It shows that to get through terrible times, people must love and care for one another, and that that is the only way in which the nightmares can come to a conclusion. At the same time, Camus leaves us with a reminder: nothing can ever truly come to an end, for the plague (or COVID) could always come back when least expected, and even if it does not, it shall always leave a lasting impact on those who experienced it." — Ava E.