We are in full swing with summer reading! July was a bit of a crap month around here, between Wyatt’s health and the weather and the air quality, and although we did get out and do some things, we spent quite a bit of time reading indoors.

This post does contain Amazon Affiliate Links.

We go to the library, a lot. It is one of Wyatt’s favorite places to go, and they all know him and talk to him when we go in. They are part of his little community and I love that the library plays such a huge part in his life. So we check out stacks of books weekly around here.

There are of course favorites, for both of us, every month. Let’s start with Wyatt’s!

Dandylion Summer was at the top of Wyatt’s list. That one was constantly a go-to before we returned it; it is a cute story about two sisters who make a wish on a dandelion for a great summer and soon find themselves with a new friend, a lion made of dandelions and flowers. They play with him all summer and then as the leaves start to turn and the days get cooler, they see him less and less and then one day he is gone. They know they will see him again next summer though so they are not sad. And, as the girls walk down the street filled with trees of autumn leaves, the reader spots a tiger in the trees, looking very autumnal so we know they will soon be making another new friend.

Fox the Tiger is another of Wyatt’s favorites of the month. It is a pretty simple story, about a fox who wants to be a tiger, and then every other animal he meets likes that idea and transforms themselves as well. He and his friends play at being something different for a bit, then eventually it rains and their costumes are destroyed and they go back to being happy with who they are. Then there is Everyone Loves Bacon! This book was a really fast, really quick and easy picture book read- with a shocking ending! (not really, I said that for drama, although it did surprise Wyatt and I!)

Finally, Wyatt also enjoyed That Book Woman. When we went to Greenfield Village for Father’s Day and their classic car show, they had a woman at the CCC camp who was dressed as a pack horse librarian and Wyatt loved talking to her. I knew I had to find a book for him about it afterwards, and I am so happy I found this one. It is a pretty long book, a little more serious, but he was wrapped up in the story of Cal and his sister Lark and the librarian who delivered free books in rain and snow, all the way up the mountain to their family. Cal hadn’t been much of a reader before, but after seeing the Book Woman deliver books in all types of weather he wondered just why they were worth all that, and started reading “that chicken scratch”, and became a reader. It was a wonderful book, and I loved it as well!

Now, my favorites!!

Let’s start with…. A Bed of Stars. This book is about a child who just feels overwhelmed with the world, until they go camping with their father out in the desert one night, “to shake hands with the universe”. It was a beautiful story, about our place in the world, about family, about comfort. I really enjoyed this story, it’s illustrations, and Wyatt snuggled up with me while we read it.

Let me also talk about Frogness for a minute too. We both loved Frogness, it was about a child and her dog who go searching for frogs in the evening, and experience so many small moments of wonder on their adventure. However, it is not until they take a moment, to just be in the moment, no looking, no searching, just being, that they find what they are looking for. A fun look at mindfulness – and frogs, of course.

I also loved Home of the Wild, although it tugged hard at my heartstrings! It was just such a sweet, wonderfully lovely, bittersweet story of a boy who loves the wild and all the creatures in the wild, and one day finds a fawn who needs some extra help. So he takes her home, makes her strong, and although his mother has told him that the fawn will need to be released into the wild when it is time, because that is where wild things belong, in the wild. The two become inseparable, and then the day comes that the boy has to let her go. But when he becomes lost in a storm some time later, looking for the fawn, the fawn finds him and leads him back home. The boy knows now, that his little fawn is big enough and strong enough to be on her own, although they do spot it each from time to time. Ok, so writing that out made me a bit teary again! It makes me feel the same way I did watching The Fox and the Hound as a kid (my favorite Disney movie of the classics) and the Widow Tweed has to say goodbye to Tod.

All of these are going onto the wish list for our own home library! I have started to whittle through our collection lately, weeding out books to give away, and it is hard, y’all! We just don’t have enough space for all of our favorites!

Have you read any of these? Any making your list of to be reads to the littles?