Alright folks, we have just a week of Summer Learning left! There’s still plenty of time to sign up, log your reading, and win prizes. With warm days and late sunsets, summer days can feel endless sometimes. One of the best ways to take advantage of these extra long days is to have an adventure, so we wanted to highlight some books for the adventurer in all of us. In the Reading Without Walls booklist, children and adults alike can explore the stars, planets, and space in these great fiction and non-fiction titles. Prefer to keep your feet on the ground? It's A Small World After All booklist highlights inclusive picture books featuring children from all over the world. These books celebrate both our differences and similarities in the experiences we all share. Care to adventure closer to home? The Walk & Roll booklist explores all the fun times you can have on a bicycle. Lastly, have a totally new adventure in the Wild and Wonderful: Animals on Land, Air, and Sea booklist, featuring colorful and informative books about animals.
Whatever kind of adventure you want this summer, San Jose Public Library is here to help guide you. Here are a few more favorites:
Reading Without Walls
Ada and the Galaxies by Alan Lightman. For Pre-Readers. Ada knows that the best place for star-gazing is on the island in Maine where she vacations with her grandparents. By day, she tracks osprey in the trees, paddles a kayak, and hunts for shells. But she's most in her element when the sun goes down and the stars blink to life. Will the fog this year foil her plans, or will her grandfather find a way to shine a spotlight on the vast puzzle of the universe ... until the weather turns?
Snatched From Earth by Bruce Coville. For Readers. When Tim Tompkins dreamed of visiting other galaxies, he didn't think he would do it as a captive of an alien, and now he must try to survive and find his way back home.
Alien Summer by James S. Murray and Carsen Smith. For Readers & Pre-Teens. On the first day of summer vacation, twelve-year-old Viv Harlow just wants to relax, but when a whole race of aliens escape from the famous Area 51 where her mom works, Viv and her friends will have to gear up, work together, and save their parents from alien abduction.
Rogue Princess by B.R. Myers. For Teens. Princess Delia must marry in order to secure an alliance and save her failing planet but, hoping for true love, she steals a spaceship and finds Aidan, a handsome stowaway, aboard in this retelling of Cinderella.
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez. For Adults. Nia Imani is a woman out of place and outside of time. Decades of travel through the stars are condensed into mere months for her, though the years continue to march steadily onward for everyone she has ever known. Her friends and lovers have aged past her, and all she has left is work.
Find more great books on the Reading Without Walls: Stars, Planets, and Space Booklist.
Wild And Wonderful: Animals on Land, Air, and Sea
5-minute Baby Animal Stories by Libby Romero. For Readers. Twelve heart warming true stories about baby animals with stunning photos
The World of Animals by Michael Leach. For Readers. This beautiful book, written by a full time wildlife author and photographer, takes you on and adventure around the world with this detail filled illustrated guide to the animal kingdom.
An Anthology of Aquatic Life by Sam Hume. For Readers. Dive under water to explore all the magic that happens in the biggest oceans, lakes, rivers, to the tiniest puddle. Explore animals, plants, and everything aquatic in this unique book full of beautiful photos and illustrations.
It's Tough to Be Tiny by Kim Ryall Woolcock. For Readers. Check out what it takes for tiny creatures to survive in this fun book. "Discover how some creatures have spring-loaded jumps, or microscopic toxic darts while others wear a scary costume or a suit of armor. Enter the world of some of the smallest creatures on our planet and you'll see that maybe it's not so tough to be tiny after all!"
Animal Teams: How Amazing Animals Work Together in the Wild by Caroline Stamps. For Readers. "Featuring a stunning blend of illustrations with photographs, this fascinating book takes young readers through a range of habitats to discover how different groups of animals work together to survive in their environments."
Find more great books on the Wild and Wonderful: Animals on Land, Air, and Sea Booklist.
Walk & Roll
Together We Ride by Valerie Bolling. For Pre-Readers. Told in rhyming text, a young African American girl learns to ride a bike, with the help of her father.
Bikes for Sale by Carter Higgins. For Pre-Readers & Readers. Maurice rides his bike all over selling lemonade, while Lotta rides her bike collecting sticks as she goes; they ride different routes and are completely unaware of each other--until their bikes are wrecked and they meet at Sid's who has turned their damaged bikes into one tandem bike, and a friendship is born.
Sarai and the Around the World Fair by Sarai Gonzalez. For Readers/Pre-Teens. When Sarai outgrows her bike, she worries she will never get to travel anywhere, until an around the world fair at school teaches her that with a little imagination, she can go anywhere she wants.
Find more great books on the Walk & Roll Booklist.
It's a Small World, After All
Amah Faraway by Margaret Chiu Greanias. For Pre-Readers & Readers. Nervous about visiting her grandmother in Taipei, Taiwan, a young girl soon adjusts to her unfamiliar surroundings and enjoys the adventure.
Bisa's Carnaval by Joana Pastro. For Pre-Readers & Readers. In the city of Olinda, Brazil, Clara is looking forward to the Carnaval street parade, with the colorful, fantastic costumes that her great-grandmother makes for the family--but her Bisa is too old to follow the parade, so Clara decides to bring the parade to her.
When Lola Visits by Michelle Sterling & Aaron Paul Asis. For Pre-Readers & Readers. For one young girl, summer is the season of no school, of days spent at the pool, and of picking golden limes off the trees. But summer doesn't start until her lola--her grandmother from the Philippines--comes for her annual visit. When Lola visits, the whole family gathers to cook and eat and share in their happiness of another season spent together.
My Day With the Panye by Tami Charles. For Pre-Readers & Readers. In the hills above Port-au-Prince, a young girl named Fallon wants more than anything to carry a large woven basket to the market, just like her Manman. As she watches her mother wrap her hair in a mouchwa, Fallon tries to twist her own braids into a scarf and balance the empty panye atop her head, but realizes it's much harder than she though.
The Many Colors of Harpreet Singh by Supriya Kelkar. For Pre-Readers & Readers. Harpreet Singh has a different color for every mood and occasion, from pink for dancing to bhangra beats to red for courage. He especially takes care with his patka--his turban--smoothing it out and making sure it always matches his outfit. But when Harpreet's mom finds a new job in a snowy city and they have to move, all he wants is to be invisible. Will he ever feel a happy sunny yellow again?
Find more great books on the It's a Small World After All Booklist.
If you've read any of these titles, we'd love to hear from you! Share your thoughts on Beanstack (the site to log your summer reading) by writing a review.
(Information Updated: June 2024)
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