but that forcing children to read complicated works over the summer

Usually children do not read complicated works over the summer. They chose their book.

High school students are assigned work, as that is the appropriate level they are at. My experience is that I work with at-risk teens in a section 8 community on this work over the summer. All of them are from ESL homes. Some are straight up borderline failing English classes from year to year, mostly do disorganization. These assignments are incredibly important to accelerating their progression and these assignments do not get in the way of their attitude any more or less than any other assignment during the school year, or in other classes.

They don't really require guidance on this work (mainly I step in to make sure they have the materials they need and have support from their families in terms of being organized to finish the work) because they simply read it over the summer and then begin guided work at the beginning of the year, often re-reading certain parts of the work. There has been a steep decline in the quality of what is assigned, so much so that some of these students are actually annoyed about it. These are the most at-risk students and they do not require help with the reading and analysis so much as the soft skills around schoolwork in general. There is a misunderstanding about this road block when people interpret literacy statistics. Poor an at-risk communities are overlooked when people try to dismiss the effectiveness and meaningfulness of these assignments and materials.

With younger students, I help them pick titles that suit their personal interests and make sure their parents know to remind them to read. And I curate a library for the nonprofit in question so that there are many choices on hand in their community.

Teens are lazy sometimes in general. Sometimes they are just spazzes. Sometimes they don't like authority in any form. Sometimes they don't have the soft skills needed to address the workload on their academic level. Summer English reading assignments are a part of the solution: not the problem.