It is the most optimistic moment of the most optimistic season: the beginning of summer, when anything is still possible, the days are long, hot and bright, and fall seems forever away. Now is the time to plan trips to the beach, family vacations, and indolent days of doing absolutely nothing. And for those days when the sun is a bit too bright or the thunderstorms roll in, books about summer delights (and summer downers) are just the ticket.
“Bunny’s Most Fabulous Vacation Ever!” by Brian Fitzgerald. (Ages 4-8. Red Comet Press. $18.99.)
Bunny has the perfect vacation planned: collecting rocks alone, stargazing alone, swimming alone, and putting up a fence to keep out intruders. And then, disaster: “A monster had set up camp … RIGHT! NEXT! DOOR!”
But it turns out that Bob the monster likes all the same things Bunny does, and after a storm ruins his plans, Bunny decides to share her space, and her vacation, with him, so they could be “two happy campers in a cosy caravan.”
It turns out that a shared vacation was just the break Bunny needed — and she and Bob “made plans to do it all over again next year.”
___
“If You Spot a Shell” by Aimée Sicuro. (Ages 4-8. Random House Studio. $18.99.)
Summer is all about beach trips, and Aimée Sicuro’s beautiful flight of fancy takes readers on a voyage of discovery, turning beach finds into gorgeous illustrations (made with real shells).
A shell “could be a pirate’s patch, a raft that floats, or a magical kaleidoscope,” and Sicuro turns shells into all of these things, as well as umbrellas, swim caps, kites and rocket ships. “If you spot a shell, you could imagine most anything” — proof that summer is a wonderful time to let your body and your mind roam free.
___
“Found” by Sam Usher. (Ages 3-7. Templar Books. $17.99.)
It starts off as just another beach day for a boy and his grandfather as they pack their snacks and towels and buckets — full of the delights of building the “best sandcastle in the world” and enjoying “the best ice cream I’d ever eaten.”
And the day only gets better. When the boy discovers a seal in distress, he and his grandfather take off on a grand, imaginative adventure across the ocean, under the sea, through a shipwreck, and then back home again.
It was an amazing day, they agree at the end of it, leading to just one question: “Can we go again tomorrow?”
___
“Heatwave” by Lauren Redniss. (Ages 4-8. Random House Studio. $19.99.)
Nothing captures those relentless days when the sun has baked you to a crisp as perfectly as the nearly monochromatic illustrations in “Heatwave,” glowing red like the burner of a stove.
“No way. Too hot. Game cancelled. 100 degrees in the shade,” the text puffs, too hot and exhausted to say any more, as a boy and his droopy dog seek relief.
There’s a subtle environmental message here, about how it feels to live on a warming planet — but also a simple, evocative diary of a summer day when it’s nearly too hot to think or move, at least until a downpour and sunset offer a bit of relief.
___
“The Truth About the Couch” by Adam Rubin, illustrated by Liniers. (Ages 3-7. G.P. Putnam’s Sons. $19.99.)
In the summer, beaches and swimming pools and amusement parks may get all the attention — but what about the humble couch, a beloved destination on many a lazy, happy summer day?
Adam Rubin’s tongue-in-cheek ode to the couch offers cheerfully bogus baloney about everything from what couches eat (spare change, remotes, and occasionally a grandmother) to where they come from (couch farms and spaceships, obviously). But don’t take my word for it: Check out this handy guide … just make sure you don’t run afoul of the dinosaur-riding furniture police.
As the book says, “The truth was right there under your butt the whole time.”
Caroline Luzzatto has taught preschool and fourth grade. Reach her at luzzatto.bookworms@gmail.com
