Summertime is right around the corner! Get your little ones excited for the change of season and all of the fun things that come along with summer by reading a summer-themed book! We’ve picked eight of our many favorite books about Summertime! Swing by your local library or favorite bookstore to check them out!
A Mermaid Girl
Great for preschoolers & kindergarteners!
Summer is here and Heba is so excited to wear her new, yellow burkini to the community pool for the first time! She can’t wait to look like the other mermaid girls in her family and sparkle like the sun.
But when Heba arrives at the pool and her friends start asking her questions about her new special swimsuit, she feels like she’s standing out too much. Suddenly her burkini seems like a bad idea.
Hello, World! Garden Time: A Book of Plants and Gardening for Kids
Great for toddlers!
This cheerful and informative Hello, World! board book teaches toddlers all about gardens—with easy-to-understand facts about how plants grow and how gardening puts food on our tables.
Hello, World! is a series designed to introduce first nonfiction concepts to babies and toddlers. Told in clear and easy terms (“Roots spread into the soil below, and then a shoot pushes up out of the earth”) and featuring bright, cheerful illustrations, Hello, World! makes learning fun for young children. And each sturdy page offers helpful prompts for engaging with your child. It’s a perfect way to bring science and nature into the busy world of a toddler, where learning never stops.
If You Spot a Shell
Great for preschoolers & kindergarteners!
A warm summer breeze and the gentle waves of the ocean wash ashore many different types of shells. In this story a girl collects shells and thinks of all the magnificent things they can be turned into with a little creativity. She imagines one shell as a swimming cap for diving into the crashing waves, another as a magical kaleidoscope, one as a rocket ship to take her way up high and another as a submarine for exploring the wonders of the world below. The girl draws inspiration from the unique beauty of each and every shell.
In this joyous celebration of a day at the beach, artist Aimee Sicuro uses real shells she’s hand selected to make her oh-so-charming illustrations. Any young reader who turns the pages of this beautiful book will be inspired to use their own imagination as they comb the beach for shells this summer.
On the Beach: A Push-and-Pull Adventure
Great for toddlers!
Curious minds will love to have fun on the beach as they play the role of lifeguard in this installment of Allison Black’s Little World series. Young readers can raise flags, patrol the beach, and even build a sandcastle in this bright and colorful casebound board book, complete with gentle narrative text and tabs to slide, push, or pull on every spread.
It Began with Lemonade
Great for preschoolers & kindergarteners!
One scorching hot summer day, a spunky young girl decides to sell lemonade . . . only to find there are too many other young entrepreneurs on her street with the same idea. So she sets off with her lemonade stand and ends up at the river’s edge, where she discovers a most unexpected, quirky, and very thirsty clientele.
The Nice Dream Truck
Great for preschoolers & kindergarteners!
When bedtime is near, you might be in luck. You might get a visit from the Nice Dream Truck!
Sample your choice of sweet dreams—from astronaut to making-the-shot and more—all served by a truck that flies on moonbeams. You may choose to swim; you may want to fly, there’s an endless assortment of flavors to try!
New York Times bestselling creators Beth Ferry and Brigette Barrager serve up a delightful twist on the lyrical bedtime romp, reminding us that there are as many ways to dream as ice cream flavors to taste.
Hello, World! Let’s Go Camping
Great for toddlers!
Kids can learn all about the joys of camping in this cheerful and informative board book—with colors, shapes, sizes, and super-simple facts. (“Stars look brighter when you are camping because there are no other lights around.”)
Told in easy-to-understand terms alongside bright illustrations of tents, camper vans, gear, marshmallow roasts, and stargazing, this sturdy book makes learning easy for little ones and offers useful prompts to help adults engage with the reader on each page.
It’s a perfect way to bring the outside world of nature into the busy world of babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, where learning never stops.
Rani’s Remarkable Day
Great for preschoolers & kindergarteners!
Rani lives in a luxurious palace full of busy adults, but she’s lonely. Being the only princess in the kingdom is boring, tedious, dull. She has no one to play with—except her baby brother, who doesn’t count!
So one morning, Rani decides to leave for the beach in search of adventure. She’s sure it will be the opposite of her life in the palace: wonderful, marvelous, fun! But in the world outside the palace walls, Rani isn’t a princess anymore, she’s just a kid who’s not so great at building sandcastles. And what she finds there is something she didn’t even know she was looking for: a friend.
Set in a vibrant South Asian–inspired world, this story of a strong-willed princess from two award-winning picture book creators is full of wordplay, heart, and humor.