First Day of Summer!

Long hot days make for children who need some quiet time. Relax and unwind at the end of the day with some summertime reading. Here are some books to choose from:

Picture books to read aloud:

• Grandma Summer by Harley Jessup
  Initially grumpy about his trip with Grandma to her beach cottage, Ben slowly comes around as he falls under the spell of the old house, the seashore, and his grandmother.
• Albie the Lifeguard by Louise Borden, illustrated by Elizabeth Sayles
  Albie gains the courage to go swimming at the town pool one summer.
• Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping by Peggy Parish, illustrated by Lynn Sweat
  Amelia Bedelia, who takes everything literally, has never been camping before, and she’s trying her best to do exactly as she’s told. Her efforts make for a very funny book.

For beginning readers or to read aloud:

• The Camp Knock Knock Mystery by Betsy Duffey, illustrated by Fiona Dunbar
  Crow and Willie have a not-entirely-friendly competition at camp over who tells the best knock-knock jokes. Willie spends the week looking for his joke book, which Crow has hidden.
• Cool Ali by Nancy Poydar
  One hot summer day, Ali takes her sidewalk chalk and draws the things that everyone needs – a little lake for Mrs. Frye to dip her toes into, a beach umbrella, the North Wind. But what will happen when a summer storm comes?
• Last One in Is a Rotten Egg by Leonard P. Kessler
  Freddy can’t swim in the deep water. When some big kids throw him into the pool, his friends and mother encourage him to ask the lifeguard for lessons. Freddy learns how to float, breathe, and blow bubbles in the water, and how to move his arms and legs, until he can jump into the deep water with his friends.
• Sally Goes to the Mountains by Stephen Huneck
  Sally goes for a ride to the mountains, where there will be all kinds of new friends to meet: bears, moose, rabbits, and skunks! There will be berries to pick, sticks to fetch, and a lake to swim in. Sally can hardly wait!
• The Summer My Father Was Ten by Pat Brisson, illustrated by Andrea Shine
  A young girl tells how every year she and her father plant a garden together, and every year he tells her the story of the summer he was 10 when he led his mates in vandalizing the garden of his lonely, old Italian neighbor but later righted the wrong.
• Artwork from amyvolk.com