Here are my favorite kids' books from the summer. Cover images and descriptions are from Goodreads.
Picture Books
Grab your basket and your coat. Put on some walking shoes.Turn the page and begin: Which story will you choose?Award-winning creators Laurel Snyder and Dan Santat transform a crowd of classic tales into an ever-changing, fascinating, laugh-out-loud choose-your-path picture book, in which you may find a sleeping maiden, waste away in a sticky licorice cage, discover the gold at the end of a wild goose chase, or maybe (just maybe) save yourself—and the day!
Most kids love hide-and-seek, but Camila just wants to hide. Hiding is what she does best when she worries, and she worries a LOT.What if... I can't... I'm scared!
A class trip to the aquarium causes her worries to pile up like never before. But when an anxious classmate asks for help, Camila discovers that her heart is bigger than her fears.
Look for Momo hiding on a farm, in a bookstore, at a construction site, and in other unlikely locations (the photos are also loaded with other hidden objects for kids and parents to find together). Perfect for bedtime reading, car trips, playtime, or anytime, Let's Find Momo is part art book, part puzzle book, and all fun!
Early Readers
Cranky Chicken is, well, cranky. With one cranky eyebrow, cranky eyes, and even cranky, scratchy feet. But then one day, Cranky meets a very friendly worm named Speedy who wants nothing more than to be friends. Young readers will love seeing the mismatched friendship grow over the course of three charming and laugh-out-loud short adventures as Chicken and Speedy become BFFs (Best Feathered Friends) and Speedy shows Chicken how to look on the bright side.
Middle Grade Fiction
Sometimes it's hard to be Milton P. Greene. He says all the wrong things, his family is falling apart, and everyone at school avoids him because of the very embarrassing Bird Brain Incident. But when Milton plays his video game Isle of Wild, he becomes someone else--Sea Hawk, the brave and brilliant naturalist explorer who conquers danger at every turn.
Then Milton's parents ship him off to the remote Lone Island for the summer, where his uncle Evan is an environmentalist researcher. The island is chock-full of spectacular species, and Milton realizes this is his chance to become the brave and brilliant naturalist he's always wanted to be--and even meet some fellow explorers!
But as it turns out, the future of the Lone Island is in some pretty serious peril, and the only thing that can save it is a field guide full of cryptic clues.
Minni lives in the poorest part of Mumbai, where access to water is limited to a few hours a day and the communal taps have long lines. Lately, though, even that access is threatened by severe water shortages and thieves who are stealing this precious commodity—an act that Minni accidentally witnesses one night. Meanwhile, in the high-rise building where she just started to work, she discovers that water streams out of every faucet and there’s even a rooftop swimming pool. What Minni also discovers there is one of the water mafia bosses. Now she must decide whether to expose him and risk her job and maybe her life. How did something as simple as access to water get so complicated?
Ava is having a really bad day. Her parents are getting divorced. She just had a big argument with her two best friends. And she forgot to charge her phone… again.To top it all off, while she is hiding out in the bathroom over lunch, the alarm goes off for a lockdown drill. Ava knows the rules. She has to get herself into a classroom, turn the ringer off on her phone, lock the door, and cover the windows. But all of the rooms have already been locked from the inside and there is no one in the halls.Pretty soon she realizes there is an intruder in the building. This isn’t a drill.
Nonfiction
The lifecycle of our protagonist, Cloud, is delightfully and sparsely narrated in nine short chapters that follow the stages of the water cycle. Young readers will immediately fall for this wide-eyed puff, and welcome facts along with humor and personality as they bask in the accomplishment of breezing through each chapter.
Do you ever wonder where we put all of our garbage, who gets rid of it, or how our planet isn't a big pile of mess? I'm Trying to Love Garbage has all the answers! From scavengers to detritivore to decomposers, nature's garbage collectors are everywhere. But humans play an important role too, and our favorite narrator is back to tell us all about it.
Do you ever wonder how video gaming was invented? What came before your PlayStation or Xbox? This is the story of Ralph Baer, a refugee from Nazi Germany, who used his skills--and a lot of ingenuity and persistence--to make life a little more fun.Television was new when Ralph returned from serving in World War II, but he didn't settle for watching TV. He knew it could be even more fun if you could play with it. He tinkered and tested, got help and rejected, but with perseverance and skill, he made his vision come true!
Told in diary form, My Stinky Summer by S. Bug introduces readers to the stinkbug's life cycle and survival habits.From the day he is born, S. Bug hears the same refrain--"Ew! Stinkbug!" The stinkbug's odor is powerful protection against from predators. Perhaps too powerful. Readers will also learn about the challenges that arise when an ecosystem is pushed off-balance.
