On Our Bookshelves: Summer Books

It’s June! I feel like it’s really crept up on me this year, as we’ve had such weird weather (a freezing start to the spring and then loads of thunderstorms and sticky, overcast days recently). But I’ve been excited to pull out our summer books and start thinking about our summer plans.

Here are some of the books we’ll be reading over the next few months:

Top row L-R:

Sneakers, the Seaside Cat. A lovely, simple story of Sneakers the cat who goes on a seaside walk. Frida really enjoys this.

Summer (from The Nursery Collection). Beautiful illustrations which perfectly capture the joy of summer, accompanied by simple poems and stories. Filled with trips to the beach and splashing in the garden, it’s the perfect addition to any summer bookshelf.

Devine combien je t’aime en été. This would be a bit simple for Frida in English, but in French it is perfect!

The Dawn Chorus. I found this sweet book in a charity shop (thrift shop) and it’s great. A simple story about a bird who wants to join in the dawn chorus but can never do it – because he is a nightingale!

Secrets of the Seashore. You hold this book up to the light to see who is hiding in rockpools and in the water. Fun and sweet.

Flower Fairies of the Spring. A beautiful classic, and wonderful for identifying seasonal flowers. Frida has a few flower fairies of her own which makes these books even more special.

The Little Book of the Dawn Chorus. Frida has a few of these brilliant books and she LOVES them. You can read about each bird and then play its sound. This book also tells you at what time before / after dawn the bird sings. Magical.

Middle row L-R:

Camille and the Sunflowers. A look at Van Gogh and his art through the eyes of a child. All of Laurence Anholt’s books are amazing, I think they are a wonderful way to bring artists to life for children. If you haven’t checked them out I really recommend doing so.

The Sun Egg. A lovely summer story about an elf finding a fallen orange on the forest floor – though not Montessori friendly as it includes fantastical elements (just in case the elf reference didn’t tip you off…)

The Longest Day: Celebrating the Summer Solstice. We haven’t read this yet as I only bought it recently, but I have seen it recommended by a few bloggers I trust. It looks brilliant for explaining about the solstice and how people celebrate it.

Summer. Muller’s beautiful wordless picture books are worth their weight in gold for young children. We love looking at the pictures together and discussing what is going on. You can buy all four seasonal books in a set which would make a wonderful gift for an infant or young child.

How Does My Fruit Grow? We just love Gerda Muller’s books (so much so that I recently wrote a whole post on them) and this one is wonderful. With a storyline and lots of extra facts, the books teaches children so much about how all different fruits are grown. We are currently growing a few strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants in our city garden, so it’s perfect garden reading material.

199 images du jardin. We have been using this a lot recently to increase (both of our!) French vocab. We also have a nature one and a farm one, and the sea one in English.

Jody’s Beans. Another great charity shop find! A very Montessori friendly story about a girl who grows beans with her grandfather.

Bottom row L-R:

How Does My Garden Grow? We just can’t get enough of this beautiful book!

T’choupi va à la piscine. We are loving the T’choupi series at the moment, and have bought a few different ones. They are perfect for learning French, as they teach a lot of vocab through simple storylines about daily life as a young child (even if that child is a penguin-thing?!)

How Do Flowers Grow? I probably won’t read this much to Frida, but she is at the age where she will happily sit with a book like this on her own and “read it” to herself, opening all of the flaps and drinking it in.

The Big Book of the Blue. We recently added this to our ever-growing collection of books about sea life, and I’m really happy with it. It covers lots of interesting creatures with the perfect amount of information for a curious young child.

Sonya’s Chickens. A gorgeous, realistic fiction book. I love that it talks about death in a matter of fact way (one of Sonya’s chickens get eaten by a fox) and that it asks us to consider the perspective of the hungry fox with cubs to feed as well as the grief of a child losing a pet.

The Seashore (My First Discoveries). I say it every time but I just adore the My First Discoveries series, and Frida does too. This book is no different. Well designed, with just the right amount of information. A winner.

What books will you be reading this summer? Am I missing any classics?