Summer is here! It’s our busiest time of the year here in the Young Readers’ Room, with our Summer Reading Program about halfway finished. We have programs and events for children every Tuesday and Thursday, and for teens every Wednesday throughout the summer. There’s still plenty of time to attend and sign up for our Summer Reading Bingo Challenge! Here are a few books on our new shelf that could check off a few of your bingo boxes.
Emily Winfield Martin is one of my favorite modern children’s book creators. Her stories are so whimsical and wonderful, often welcoming animals and elements of nature to bring magic into everyday life. The Wildest Thing is a story about inner peace and solitude, but it’s about community at the same time: the Wild is all at once a character, an environment, and the animal collective that brings Eleanor the space to become herself. It builds so wonderfully as Eleanor discovers the wild inside of her, gaining confidence and community in wild animal friends. It’s not until she’s fully embraced the wildness inside her that she’s able to find peace, relax, and fall asleep.
This Is Orange: A Field Trip Through Color by Rachel Poliquin is exactly that: a field trip! This book feels like you’re walking through a museum about the color orange, and it really did give me a new appreciation for (what used to be) my least favorite color! The illustrations are so rich and focused. You’ll learn everything from the birthplace of the fruit to the three shades of “International Orange,” which is used in the design of space suits. It’s interesting, beautiful, and teaches in a way that does not patronize, allowing children space to become curious.
Have you ever had a stuffed cat that you cherish? Have you ever had a mess in your room that grew so much it ate the stuffed cat that you cherish? If so, you’re absolutely going to relate to Tulip of Tulip’s Mess by Anden Wilder. Mess is like a pet to Tulip, he follows at her ankles and even sleeps at the foot of her bed. He snacks on everything she drops, and becomes hungrier with each bite… Mess grows and grows, but isn’t a problem for Tulip until he gobbles up her stuffed cat! This is a very sweet story about being a messy person and keeping that mess reasonable and maintained. It doesn’t admonish Mess or require Tulip to change her tendencies, only how to understand and address the point at which a mess becomes overwhelming.
Yuki Ainoya’s Sato the Rabbit: Morning Light is absolutely magical. Sato is a boy who becomes a rabbit – no explanation needed, naturally. He appreciates everyday life, goes on adventures, and makes discoveries all on his own in ways that will inspire you to see extraordinary things in sights you’ve never considered extraordinary. This colorful world created by Ainoya is made up of four different volumes, Morning Light being the most recent. This particular volume is a collection of two stories, both of which focus on light and the power it holds. Consider stirring your coffee with a beam of light, or opening a shell to find a sky full of sunset emerging.
These are just a few of my current favorites from the new book shelf that I hope you will also enjoy! We always look forward to hearing about the books that you’ve read to complete your Summer Reading Challenge. You have until Thursday, August 6 to complete your Bingos — happy summer reading!