Summer is that time of year that we all can feel free and relaxed, no matter our age. Summers are made for family trips, beach/lake visits, late nights, ice cream cones and so many other things that make us feel like a kid all over again. This book list of our favorite summer books for kids will help you to get ready for summer and get you in a summer mindset.
Summer Books for Kids
FIND EVEN MORE SUMMER THEME ACTIVITIES IN OUR PRINTABLE SUMMER LESSON PLANS.
Books about Summer for Kids
The Summer Visitors by Karel Hayes
The Summer Visitors is a funny book about two families, humans and bears, that are both enjoying a summer at a house on a lake. Throughout the book, the bears follow the humans around trying out their swim suits, flying their kites and eating some of their food. The story is told in a comic book style and each page has 2-5 words or no words at all. The story is really told through the pictures.
Rules of Summer by Shauna Tan
Rules of Summer is a very creative and imaginative book that older readers will enjoy. Each page gives one rule and a picture to go with the rule; for example my favorite rule is ‘Never step on a snail’ and the picture next to the rule shows two boys on a street and one has just stepped on a snail and the other is looking at a tornado headed towards them. This is a great way to practice inferring, predicting and cause and effect and how breaking the rule creates the strange events you see in the picture.
Summer Days and Nights by Wong Herbert Yee
Summer Days and Nights is a sweet, dream like story told by a little girl. The story starts in the morning as she wakes to a bright room and the reader follows her through a fun day of all things summer. I love the rhyming story and the reminders of all the simple things we can do to enjoy summer.
Cheers for a Dozen Ears: A Summer Crop of Counting by Felicia Sanzari Chernesky
Cheers for a Dozen Ears is a fun counting book that features fruits and vegetables that are most commonly grown in the summer. The illustrations are bright, colorful and the collage art creates a 3D feel. This is a great book to read before heading to the farmers market or when learning about fruits and vegetables grown in the summer.
Canoe Days by Gary Paulsen
Canoe Days is a poetic story of a man in his canoe on a lake. The watercolor illustrations of the lake’s surface, animals under the water and at the shore line will make you wish for a canoe day of your own.
Mama, Is It Summer Yet? By Nikki McClure
In the story Mama, Is It Summer Yet? a young boy ask his mother in winter if it is summer yet and she says no but points out the signs that summer will be there soon. Throughout the book, from winter until summer arrives, he asks and she shows him a new sign that summer is coming. I like the simple text and bold illustrations that remind us that even when it is not summer we can see that summer will arrive soon.
Let It Shine by Maryann Cocca-Leffler
Let It Shine is a simple and fun book that looks at all the ways we can get out and enjoy summer. Each page is bright and colorful and shows fun summer activities from sleeping in a hammock to taking a trip to the beach. This is one book in a series by Maryann Cocca-Leffler and each book focuses on a season.
Summer by Gerda Muller
Summer is a wordless board book that is great for readers of all ages. The wordless illustrations open up discussion of what is happening and all the things that readers see. Summer is one book in a series of four that features each of the seasons.
Zoomer’s Summer Snowstorm by Ned Young
In Zoomer’s Summer Snowstorm, Zoomer ask for a snow cone and creates a winter wonderland in the middle of summer. This is a silly story that young readers will love as they see all the non-summer things Zoomer can do.
The Longest Day: Celebrating the Summer Solstice by Wendy Pfeffer
The Longest Day is a non-fiction book that explains the Summer Solstice, its history and the science behind it. The book also includes suggested readings and websites and four activities for students that will help readers understand the Summer Solstice. This book is written for elementary age students.
The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
The Relatives Came is a classic story of a family all gathering together during the summer. The book is a Caldecott-Honor book and reminds us of how fun it is to have family visit. A must read before visiting or having family visit this summer.
Summer Color! by Diana Murray
Join two children on a backyard adventure in this beautifully illustrated book about the colors and wonder of the outdoors in the summer months.
I See Summer by Charles Ghigna
The very simple repetitive “I See” pattern of this books makes it a great read aloud in a toddler classroom and an excellent book to start a predictive writing activity about summer with preschoolers and kindergarteners. After reading the story together guide children in coming up with their very own “I See” statements about summer traditions.
Summer: A Pop-Up Book by David A Carter
This simple pop-up book is engaging for toddlers and preschoolers, and it introduces a variety of flora and fauna related to the summer months.
My Awesome Summer by P. Mantis by Maul Meisel
This is not your average “What I Did This Summer” book. Instead of being told by a child. It’s told by a newly hatched praying mantis! In diary format learn some interesting details about the life of a praying mantis. Bonus: You can even hatch your own praying mantis eggs. It’s a really neat experience!
And Then Comes Summer by Tom Brenner
Teaching cause and effect? This book is terrific in helping kids understand when/then statements. Use it to discuss what they might do when prompted with a specific situation in the story, and you’ll inspire quite a bit of creative thinking in addition to exploring some favorite summer pasttimes!
MORE SUMMER FUN WITH PRINTABLE SUMMR THEME LESSON PLANS
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
GET YOUR LESSON PLANS
Preschool Summer Theme Lesson Plans
Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers.
More Summer Books
More Resources for Little Book Lovers
The best way to encourage a love of reading is to provide kids with many opportunities to engage with a wide variety of books that are of interest to them. That’s why we share so many books lists on Fantastic Fun and Learning. We want to make it easy for you to find great books your kids will love. Over the years we’ve also discovered some helpful tools for connecting kids and books.
Digital libraries are one very handy way to do this. Epic! is one of our favorite online libraries. It’s full of over 25,000 books, learning videos, quizzes and more for kids 12 and under…and it’s free for educators. Click here to learn more and sign up.
Book Boxes are another fun way to get kids excited about reading. What kid doesn’t love to get a special delivery in the mail?! The crew over at Bookroo finds the best little known books that you won’t already have in your library, and they send them to you each month. Take a peak inside a Bookroo Box here.
Book-Based Activities are also a lot of fun for kids. Jodie over at Growing Book by Book has saved us all a ton of time and created a full year of Book-Based Activity Calendars so that you can extend the fun with a special book each week.
Originally published June 2015. Last updated May 2019.
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