Get Outside!

This month’s blog post is inspired by the many opportunities June provides to get outside and have some fun in the sun. Whether you are going to the beach, swimming, fishing, or camping out, try some of these fun summer-themed books!

June Events
June 4th: First public hot air balloon flight by the Montgolfier brothers in 1783
June 15th: Fly a Kite Day
June 18th: International Picnic Day
June 21st: First day of Summer
1st full week: National Fishing Week
Week beginning with the second Monday: National Little League Baseball Week

Fiction: Picture Books

Day, Alexandra.
Carl’s Summer Vacation. 2008.
Carl and Madeleine are supposed to be napping while Mom and Dad get the summer cabin ready for company but they escape from the hammock to do some exploring on the lake.
[Education S Collection SE. D33csv]

Frazee, Marla.
A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever. 2008.
Friends James and Eamon enjoy a wonderful week at the home of Eamon’s grandparents during summer vacation.
[Education S Collection SE. F869c]

Gershator, Phillis and David.
Summer is Summer. 2006.
Presents a celebration of summer from a child’s perspective.
[Education S Collection Q. SE. G323s]

Koller, Jackie French.
Peter Spit a Seed at Sue. 2008.
One hot summer day, four bored children start a watermelon seed-spitting battle that soon spreads throughout their town.
[Education S Collection SE. K833p]

Lee, Suzy.
Wave. 2008.
A wordless picture book that shows a little girl’s first experiences at the beach, as she goes from being afraid of the roaring waves to playing on the shore while gulls soar overhead.
[Education S Collection Q. SE. L5158w]

Lin, Grace.
Olivina Swims. 2007.
Olvina, a chicken in more ways than one, overcomes her fear of swimming with help from her friend Hailey, a penguin, while on vacation in Hawaii.
[Education S Collection SE. L632o]

London, Jonathan.
Froggy Goes to Camp. 2008.
Froggy goes to a sleep-away camp, where all of his fun seems to cause trouble for the camp’s director.
[Education S Collection Q. SE. L846f]

Maurer, Tracy Nelson.
A to Z of Summer. 2003.
Presents an alphabet of summer activities.
[Education Storage SE. M446asu]

Fiction: Juvenile/Young Adult Books

Adler, David.
Cam Jansen and the Summer Camp Mysteries: A Super Special. 2007.
Cam Jansen and her best friend are spending three weeks at Camp Eagle Lake, where they play sports, do crafts, and solve three mysteries.
[Education Storage S. Ad592csc]

Freidman, Laurie.
Campfire Mallory. 2008.
In this low-vocabulary, high-interest book, nine-and-a-half-year-old Mallory’s trepidation about going to sleepaway camp is multiplied when she and her best friend are assigned to different cabins, and a new “friend” seems determined to get Mallory in trouble.
[Education S Collection S. F914c]

Gifford, Peggy.
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little. 2007.
With summer coming to an end, about-to-be-fourth-grader Moxy Maxwell does a hundred different things to avoid reading her assigned summer reading book.
[Education S Collection S. G366mo]

Gregory, Kristiana.
Bronte’s Book Club. 2008.
When twelve-year-old Bronte moves to a small California beach town, her idea to form a book club in order to make friends turns out to be a good one, after a rocky start.
[Education S Collection S. G862b]

Han, Jenny.
The Summer I Turned Pretty. 2009.
Belly spends the summer she turns sixteen at the beach just like every other summer of her life, but this time things are very different.
[Education S Collection S. H191su]

Harrison, David.
Vacation: We’re Going to the Ocean: Poems. 2009.
Nothing is more fun than loading up the car and heading off to the shore! In light verse that rings with the sounds of summer, David L. Harrison captures the excitement and joy, as well as some of the surprises, of a young boy’s beach holiday with his family.
[Education S Collection S. H2457v]

Kinney, Jeff.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days. 2009.
In the fourth book in this series middle-schooler Greg Heffley records his attempts to spend his summer vacation sensibly indoors playing video games and watching television, despite his mother’s other ideas. This series does not have to be read in order.
[Education S Collection S. K623dd]

Nonfiction

Crowe, Ellie.
Surfer of the Century: the Life of Duke Kahanamoku. 2007.
A brief biography of Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku, five-time Olympic swimming champion from the early 1900s who is also considered worldwide as the ‘father of modern surfing.’
[Education S Collection Q. SB. K121c]

Dixon, Norma.
Kites: Twelve Easy-to-Make High Fliers. 1996.
Provides instructions for making and flying all kinds of kites, including a serpent kite, six-sided kite, shooting star, and flexible kite.
[Education Storage S.796.158 D645K]

Kite, Patricia.
Gardening Wizardry for Kids. 1995.
Collection of more than 300 extraordinary experiments and projects with apple seeds, beans, potatoes, fruit pits, vegetables, herbs and everything that grows. Contains a bonus chapter that lists seed catalogs that kids can obtain from sources in the U.S. and Canada, mostly free.
[Education S Collection S.635.048 K649g]

Klein, Adam.
Camping. 2008.
This information book includes sections on packing smart, choosing a camp site, eating, navigation and safety, campsite creatures, sleeping comfortably, and going into the wilderness.
[Education S Collection S.796.54 K672c]

Priceman, Marjorie.
Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride. 2005.
The story of the historic first hot-air balloon flight in 1783, told from the point of view of the duck, sheep, and rooster who were the first passengers.
[Education S Collection Q. S.629.133 P931h]

Ross, Kathy.
Step-by-Step Crafts for Summer. 2007.
Craft-making projects to enhance summer activities.
[Education S Collection Q. S.745.5 R733st]

Williamson, Susan.
Summer Fun: 60 Activities for a Kid-Perfect Summer. 1999.
Suggests a variety of activities for summertime, including nature study, cooking, crafts, games, creative activities, and more.
[Education Storage Q. S.790.1922 W676s]