I'm back with another library haul, and this one might be my favorite stack yet. About every month I request 30 to 40 picture books from our library to read with my kids. I read some at the start of the day with my 5 year old (mixed in with books we own), we usually read a couple over snack in the afternoons, and sometimes we read before bed.
This month's haul is basically a love letter to summer, and we'll be reading through this stack from now until we start school at the beginning of September. Forty-three books came home with us, and they barely squeezed into our fruit crate.
Here are all the books we checked out! I'm sharing them as Amazon affiliate links for ease of finding them, but I recommend you install this Amazon Library Extension to your browser so you can see right on the Amazon page if the book is in stock in your library or surrounding libraries. Our library is connected to a system of dozens of libraries in our region, and they share books with one another. This helps us have access to so many more books than we could ever find at the branch closest to us.
BOOKS ABOUT SUMMER
• Florette by Anna Walker
• Jamberry by Bruce Degen
• Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe
• Miss MacDonald Has a Farm by Kalee Gwarjanski
• Rainstorm by Barbara Lehman
• The Flowers' Festival by Elsa Beskow
BOOKS WITH ANIMALS
• A Dog Named Doug by Karma Wilson
• Bunny in the Middle by Anika Denise
• Flossie & the Fox by Patricia C. McKissack
• Aunt Piggy Patty's Piggy by Jim Aylesworth
• The Lending Zoo by Frank Asch
• Hector Fox and the Map of Mystery by Astrid Sheckels
• Pokko and the Drum by Matthew Forsythe
• Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing by April Jones Prince
• Meet the Mini-Mammals by Melissa Stewart
• Summertime Sleepers by Melissa Stewart
• Verdi by Janell Cannon
• Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom
BOOKS ABOUT WATER + OCEAN
• The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish by Chloe Savage
• Ocean Speaks: How Marie Tharp Revealed the Ocean's Biggest Secret by Jess Keating
• Heroes of the Surf by Elisa Carbone
• Ocean Meets Sky by The Fan Brothers
• Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions by Chris Barton
• Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall
BOOKS ABOUT VEHICLES
• Locomotive by Brian Floca
• The Digger and the Butterfly by Joseph Kuefler
• The Digger and the Flower by Joseph Kuefler
BOOKS THAT HELP KIDS IMAGINE
• I Imagine a Place by Sarah L. Thomson
• If I Built a House by Chris van Dusen
• If I Built a School by Chris van Dusen
• If I Built a Town by Chris van Dusen
• We Were Tired of Living in a House by Liesel Moak Skorpen
BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS
• A Book for Escargot by Dashka Slater
• Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown
OTHER FAVORITES
• The Tiny Baker by Hayley Barrett
• Henry's Freedom Box by Ellen Levine
• The Old Woman Who Named Things by Cynthia Rylant
• The Full Belly Bowl by Jim Aylesworth
• How to Send a Hug by Hayley Rocco
• Adèle & Simon by Barbara McClintock
• Fannie in the Kitchen by Deborah Hopkinson
• The Amazing Air Balloon by Jean Van Leeuwen
• Mr. Pine's Purple House by Leonard Kessler
If you are enjoying this library haul series and want help finding quality picture books, check out this post I shared on Instagram a while back with my ten favorite accounts and websites for finding good book ideas.
Happy reading, and happy summer!