Summer is here (in the Northern hemisphere) and with that comes a lot of great picture books. Here are a few of my favorite kids’ books about summer fun.
Water
I’ve done a post about wordless books before, but this one didn’t make the cut. I don’t know why, honestly, when it’s such a charming story. A girl, drawn in black and white, visits the beach and there are waves, which are blue. At first she is timid, then warms up to it. The wave brings treasures and the girl ends up holding up her skirt like a bowl, full of sea shells.
Read this before going to the beach, and then you and your child can collect your own treasures, like sea shells and sea glass and smooth rocks. Then when you get home, you can create art with your treasures. My daughter and I used a canvas board a couple of years ago. We spread liquid glue on the board and covered it with sand (purchased from an art store, but beach sand might work well too. Then after letting it dry overnight, I used a hot glue gun to add our beachy finds. We put it in an 8×10″ picture frame that I removed the glass from, and it’s been hanging on the wall in her room ever since.
Sand
Ladybug Girl at the Beach by David Soman
Lulu is a preschooler who likes to dress up as a ladybug, calling herself Ladybug Girl. In this book her family goes to the beach, and she is excited but then she’s afraid to go in the water. She makes a sandcastle, has ice cream, and flies a kite. Before going home, though, she does wade into the ocean and has a lot of fun. She can’t wait to go back, and falls asleep in the car on the way home.
Sun
A simple book with rhyming couplets, this book shows a lot of different things that kids can do in the sun, including gardening, swimming, and watching insects. Every July the fireflies start coming out at dusk here in New York, and it’s one of our favorite signs of early summer. My kids and I love going outside where they can chase and catch fireflies (and then let them go, of course), and we look forward to doing it every year.
At the end of the book there’s a page of STEM-related activities to do with young children, such as, “After a rain, trace a puddle with sidewalk chalk and watch the sun shrink it.” That’s so cool, I never did that as a kid but I think it could lead to an interesting, educational conversation with your child.
Check out Miss Michelle’s Book Nook
Miss Michelle shares her book recommendations each month on the In Our Homeschool blog. Find links to all of her posts here.
Miss Michelle is the sister of Kristen, who writes this blog. She has a daughter who is 10 and a son who is 6. They are not home-schooled, but Miss Michelle is super supportive and proud of her sister for doing it. She has been a full-time Children’s Librarian for over 15 years and loves to recommend her favorite books. You can follow her on Goodreads, where she keeps track of books she has read for storytime, at https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/170007385-miss-michelle.
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