Children's books for summer 🍉
Can we read? 2026 special edition on summer
Here is your permission slip for summer:
Permission to read one more chapter, eat dinner late (or with your hands, or in the grass, or not at all), to let routines fall apart (they’re going to anyway), to stay outside longer.
Permission to sink slowly when you sit in the sun into the warmth and life the light brings.
Permission to rest and recover and recuperate, without guilt or explanation and certainly not apology.
Permission to ignore the things that don’t matter and pay close attention to the things that do.
Permission to wander and wonder.
Permission to enjoy something that you haven’t realized you’ve been missing.
Permission to explore — and then expand into — deliciousness and delight.
Permission to share and receive pleasure.
Permission to return to something you’ve lost or let go of or something that no longer serves you. Or both.
Permission to accept the gift of the changes you need.
A Fish Like Me by Jamie Sumner, illustrated by Devon Holzwarth (2026)
🧒 Preschool–Early Reader (3–6)
📖 Independent Readers (6–9)
In what is absolutely my favorite new book for summer 2026, Sumner has written a deeply joyful, wondrous story about a little boy who finds the magic of moving in wholly different ways during swim therapy.
It takes a few pages to reveal that he’s a wheelchair user — and my guess is that this surprise will be the thing that draws the youngest readers back to this book again and again — because the focus here is not on his life on land, but his life in the water. The freedom he finds, alone and with support, allow him to inhabit his exuberant, watery imagination — captured perfectly by Holzwarth’s lush gouache, colored pencil, and collage on paper illustrations — becoming a catfish , a seahorse, a starfish, flowing through each underwater scene, “a burble of bubbles the only sound when I breathe out.”
If you only pick up one new title this summer, let it be this effervescent celebration of the different bodies we inhabit, and the different ways and places we can find joy in moving them.
Summer by Gerda Muller (2005)
🍼 Babies & Toddlers (0–3)
The titles in Gerda Muller’s wordless series are some of the best seasonal books for ages 1-3 I’ve ever found — my own children loved them, and I always wish more people knew about them.
Illustrated with the types of scenes and details that children can pore over for a long time, they radiate both innocence and fun. These books are absolute perfection for toddlers (and make wonderful gifts for that age group) but I’ve found, to my surprise, that they have enduring appeal far beyond what I would have guessed. If you enjoy Summer, don’t hesitate to seek out Spring, Fall, and Winter. They are each as good as the last.
Don’t know how to read a wordless book? I got you:
Ice Cream Face by Heidi Woodward Sheffield (2022)
🧒 Preschool–Early Reader (3–6)
In a situation we can probably all relate to slightly more than we’d like to admit, a little boy waits impatiently in line for ice cream, cycling through every imaginable emotion along the way: jealousy, excitement, frustration, delight, even the agony of brain freeze. The longest wait in the world, am I right?
This — along with her super cute, vibrant, textured collage illustrations — brings a lot of humor to the situation, but it’s the underlying seriousness with which Sheffield treats these feelings that is, well, the real treat. By honoring the things that matter to children — even small things that might seem silly and, let’s be honest, can drive adults around the bend — she gives them permission to feel all those feelings, even the ones as drippy and messy as ice cream.
(Fair warning — you will absolutely want ice cream after reading this.)
The Big Alfie Out of Doors Storybook by Shirley Hughes (1992)
🧒 Preschool–Early Reader (3–6)
📖 Independent Readers (6–9)
In my many years of reading children’s books, I’ve never come across an author whose work is a surefire hit as often as Shirley Hughes. Her stories are always simple and small, unextraordinary — and her colorful illustrations are full of activity, clutter, and the mess of real daily life in a real family — but are deeply satisfying for young readers.
That is very much the case in this lovely collection of several stories and poems, where her greatest characters, Alfie and his lovable little sister, Annie Rose, spend their days camping with their father, playing shop in the yard, exploring the seaside, watching creepy-crawlies, and turning regular summer moments into full-scale adventures.
Hughes captures the experience of childhood with astonishing accuracy — the intensity of imaginative play, the joy of muddying one’s knees and collecting special treasures, the magic of staying outside until the light fades — and this book is a beautiful reminder that ordinary life is rich with wonder.
A Friend is a Friend is a Friend by Sara O'Leary, illustrated by Qin Leng (2026)
📖 Independent Readers (6–9)
“Summer camp is a great place to make new friends! Apparently. But what’s the best way to make a friend?” That’s the question that opens this lovely, inclusive, joyful book about friendship — which everyone in the book answers in their own unique way.
Some ask questions, some listen, some find a kindred spirit by liking the same things, some are kind, some are loyal, some give everyone a chance. But they all have one thing in common — the understanding that the best way to make a friend is to be one.
Leng’s bright ink, marker, and watercolor bring summer camp to life with all the movement and energy that entails — kids run and climb and explore all over every page, making friendship look not only festive and fun but deeply fulfilling as well. And we all deserve friends like that.
Summertime Sleepers: Animals That Estivate by Melissa Stewart, illustrated by Sarah S. Brannen (2021)
📖 Independent Readers (6–9)
📚 Middle Grade (9–12)
What’s the opposite of hibernation? Estivation! It’s a thing! (Who knew?)
Here Stewart does what she does best: presents detailed, factual information — about animals ranging from your common chipmunk and ladybug to lesser-known creatures like the desert hedgehog and the yellow-bellied marmot — in an engaging way. Add to that Brannen’s unique illustrations — she shows the animals wide-awake, in watercolor on white cold press paper, and asleep, in black-and-white sketches inset on the same page — and you have an excellent read for elementary-aged kiddos that will have them poring over the finer details of each animal’s estivation.
Stewart has a special knack for making science cool. If you have a nonfiction lover, don’t miss this one, but don’t discount it for those who haven’t liked nonfiction in the past — estivation is genuinely fascinating, and curiosity is a powerful thing.
Pie is for Sharing by Stephanie Parsley Ledyard, illustrated by Jason Chin (2018)
🧒 Preschool–Early Reader (3–6)
📖 Independent Readers (6–9)
This is the story of a pie — well, first a pie and then a book and then a ball, and so on — which is really a larger story about sharing. Not everything that is shared is tangible: the reader learns that in addition to sharing a boat, one can share the stream it’s floating on, in addition to sharing a towel, one can share the light of the sun that warms it. Chin’s watercolor and gouache illustrations show all this activity and then some — he somehow manages to capture not only the emotions present here but also the spirit of the season: the play and togetherness, the friendship and the fun.
If this all sounds a bit simplistic, perhaps it is — but its simplicity enhances the poeticism of both the prose and the idea, as well as distills the essential message: that summer is for sharing what you have, how you feel, who you are. Some things — even seasons — are just better together.
The Great Frog Race and Other Poems by Kristine O’Connell George, illustrated by Kate Kiesler (1997)
📖 Independent Readers (6–9)
📚 Middle Grade (9–12)
In the introduction to this simple, beautiful book, poet Myra Cohn Livingston writes, “In a time when we have a surfeit of verse whose purpose seems mainly to elicit a quick laugh, it is not only refreshing but urgent that our children hear poetry resonating with music, keen observation, fresh metaphor and personification, and meaningful flights of imagination.” She wrote those words nearly 30 years ago but could have written them yesterday, for all their relevance.
And she’s right about what O’Connell George captures here, in small, vivid moments of childhood outdoors: racing frogs, collecting treasures, watching fireflies, listening to crickets, feeling summer unfold slowly and gloriously. The poems are short, accessible, and wonderfully observant — nothing is overexplained or cheap — and paired perfectly with Kate Kiesler’s soft, luminous watercolor illustrations.
These are inviting, gentle poems of long summer nights — when maybe one is lucky enough to witness a great frog race. (Sign me up.)
I hope you’ve found some fresh new reads for the season here. You can also take a look at my list, Books for summer, in case you’d like to visually browse and/or support this newsletter in another way — I get a tiny commission if you use this link to make a purchase. (Thank you!)
Go fill out your own permission slip for summer ☀️
Sarah
Southern Hemisphere subscribers, here are books for you:
I just read A Fish Like Me and loved it! 😊
I've saved the permission slip and returned to it so many times!