Skip to main content

Books to Read When... You Want to Welcome Summer

The summer solstice is quickly approaching. For many people, this signals the “true” start of summer! There are a wide variety of adventures that people like to put on their summer bucket lists. The following books may help inspire you to try something new this summer, remind yourself why you keep going back to tried-and-true favorites, or possibly resonate with you if summer is not your favorite season. 

By David Covell 
New York: Viking, 2024. Picture Book.  

Going camping and sitting around a campfire is not only warming to the body, but also creates a certain amount of comfort for the soul. This picture book includes beautiful depictions of animals and people feeling welcome. A beautiful book with elements of nature, community, and friendship that will make you grateful that summer camping trips exist.

By Scott Allen 
Massachusetts: Nosy Crow, an imprint of Candlewick Press, 2020. Informational. 96 pages.

What do taekwondo, sailing, rugby, and skateboarding all have in common? They are events you could potentially see at the Olympics. Paris, France is the home to this year’s summer Olympics. Since the Olympics are not an annual event, this might be the first time a family experiences the Olympics together! This book by Scott Allen is full of information to familiarize children and their grown-ups with a sense of what the Olympics are. It contains a list of the numerous events, rules for specific sports, and their history. With interesting facts and highlights on each page, this book is sure to interest sports fans and anyone who might want to win a trivia battle. 

By Ryan T. Higgins 
Los Angeles: Disney-Hyperion, 2024. Picture Book.

A lot of people look forward to the heat of summer. But not everyone and not every creature. Bruce is a bear who does not love the heat. When he goes to the beach, it doesn’t take long before he realizes the sun, the wind, and the sand are all too much for him to take! This humorous book is a reminder that summer, for all its joys, might not have the same appeal for everyone.

Written by Amy Hest 
Illustrated by Erin Stead 
New York: Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, 2024. Picture Book.

With the whole day ahead of them, Big Bear and Little Bear decide that fishing might be the ideal activity. The illustrations by award-winning Erin Stead give a gentle touch that will ensure this book becomes a beloved classic. The lyrical way that Little Bear echoes the words of Big Bear is a tender reminder of the power of relationships and how little ones are always listening to the big ones in their lives. 


Written by Joy Cowley 
Illustrated by Hilary Jean Tapper 
New Zealand: Gecko Press, 2024. Picture Book.

At the end of a long day of summer fun, the best feeling can be snuggling up with friends and a good book. This calming picture book is perfect for bedtime! It uses the words of a simple poem to convey the feeling of a day at the beach, followed by evening routines to help a child drift off to sleep. The illustrations are watercolor and ink, and a beautiful addition to an already appealing book. If you take a trip to the beach this summer, or are only able travel there through words, this book is the perfect addition to your summer reading list.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall By Jasmine Warga New York: Harper, 2024. Fiction. 211 pages. A painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum and sixth-grader Rami Ahmed is worried he's the main suspect. His mother works at the museum as the lead custodian and Rami spends a lot of time hanging out at the museum while she works. On the day the painting went missing, the only people there were the security guard Ed, the cleaning crew, and Rami. Then, a mysterious girl appears in the museum. She floats around from room to room and only Rami can see her -- and she looks exactly like the girl from the missing painting. To prove his innocence and help figure out who the floating girl is, Rami partners up with an aspiring sleuth at school named Veda and the two dive into unexpected situations as they try to solve the mystery. This is a cozy mystery that is focused mostly on characters and ambiance and only a little on the mystery itself. Don't read this book if yo...

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

Review: The Amazing Generation

The Amazing Generation: Your Guide to Fun and Freedom in a Screen-Filled World Written by Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price  Illustrated by Cynthia Yuan Cheng New York: Rocky Pond Books, 2025. Informational. 226 pages.  In a kid-friendly adaptation of his best-selling book, The Anxious Generation , Jonathan Haidt teams up with Catherine Price, author of How to Break Up With Your Phone , to bring the power of good information directly to the hands of those that this issue affects most directly — kids on the cusp of getting their own smartphones. The book presents information about the drawbacks of having a smartphone and social media too soon in clear and easy-to-understand language, with eye-catching graphics and pop-outs. Throughout the book, quotes from real teens and young adults, called screen "rebels" by the authors, emphasize the points the authors are trying to make. Fictional characters are featured throughout in a graphic novel story, which further emphasizes the po...