So begins one of my daughter’s summer homework assignments. The disarmingly creative and touching novel by Mark Haddon, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” about a 15-year-old boy with Asperger’s syndrome, was one of three books on her reading list.

This time of year, houses such as mine are swept with a sudden rush to finish books and assignments before the alarm clock and the school bell rudely reassert themselves. Summer is no longer the season when homework is banished to Mars and the toughest reading assignment is that day’s movie listings.

Thanks to the push for higher academic achievement, schools across the nation are requiring students to read everything from modern novels to the ancient Greeks, and not just speed through them, but highlight relevant passages, take notes in the margins, chart themes and character development, and write short papers. Some schools even hand out math assignments.

Why, it’s February in August.

And you won’t hear any complaints from me.

Apparently, a growing number of parents are whining about the workload, and there’s always an “expert” or two who will fret that young Americans are psychologically damaged by being forced to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” when they could be swimming or playing tennis or lolling around.

I say: Loll around with a book in hand.

A recent study by the National Endowment for the Arts found a dramatic decline in the number of Americans now reading literature, with the steepest decrease occurring in younger adults. NEA chief Dana Gioia has called this “a national crisis,” and assigning “Tom Sawyer” during the summer is one nifty way to reverse the trend. If young people aren’t voluntarily picking up a book because tapping on the computer is easier and more inviting – well, there’s no time to lose in unleashing the power of literature to counteract the pull of instant messaging.

And losing time is what happens with our yawningly long vacations. Americans have a pitifully short school year compared with the industrialized countries with whom we compete, and the consequences are costly. Just ask any teacher how long it takes to compensate for the “summer slide” and bring students back to where they were academically when school ended in early June.

We’re munching on Halloween candy by then.

Research shows that if children are not actively engaged in some kind of academic activity during the summer, they are not as successful in school the next year. This is especially true for poor and minority students who don’t have access to the expensive enrichment programs that characterize summer for the more affluent.

Getting lost in a good book is the least expensive, least complicated, most inviting way to learn, but promoting literacy is not only about individual growth and pleasure. The NEA report also found that those who read literature are much more likely to be involved in cultural, sports and volunteer activities than are nonreaders. In fact, people who read more books tend to have the highest level of participation in other activities but one – watching television.

Most kids I know are awfully good at that already.

Not every summer reading assignment is a novel as captivating as Mark Haddon’s story of Christopher Boone and his improbable quest to investigate the death of a neighborhood dog. It’s hard to read history when the beach beckons, and summer is a deserved respite from a school year in which the tempo and the expectations are continually rising.

Still, we do our children and our nation a disservice by denigrating the value of reading and scholarship by implying it’s worthwhile only certain times of year.

After discovering the dead animal in front of Mrs. Shears’ house, Christopher Boone makes this startling observation: “There was a garden fork sticking out of the dog.”

Now don’t you want to read more?