Summertime brings a wide range of experiences — breaks from school, adventures with family, moves, time spent outdoors — and feelings that can accompany them. Margaret Leonard of Dotters Books in Eau Claire offers a thoughtful selection of children’s books ripe for reading this time of year.
Camp Tiger by Susan Choi, illustrated by John Rocco
Susan Choi’s new children’s book, Camp Tiger, blew me away. A boy and his mom, dad and older brother head out on their annual end-of-summer camping trip. The little boy has had a bittersweet summer; he is starting first grade in the fall and isn’t sure if he feels ready to leave his kindergarten class. When the family arrives at their favorite camping spot, they find an unexpected visitor: a tiger — and he can talk. The little boy is the first to embrace the tiger’s presence, climbing right into a tent with him and inviting him along on all of their adventures. They have a magical weekend, enjoying the unexpected delights of their favorite place with a new friend. When they leave, the little boy feels more ready to begin his new journey in first grade. This is a lovely book about the joys of summer and the fear that often accompanies the unexpected. Choi reminds us that while the unknown can be scary, it can also be magical.
The Not-So Great Outdoors, written and illustrated by Madeline Kloepper
Madeline Kloepper’s The Not-So Great Outdoors is a great book for the reluctant camper in each family. A girl and her family head out on a summer camping trip. While her mother, father and little brother are eager to go on hikes, climb rocks, get the tent set up and eat around the fire, she is not excited at all. She’d rather be spending time with her friends or staring at her phone. As the trip goes on, though, she begins to see the beauty around her: beautiful waterfalls, lots of fun rocks to climb and delicious food to eat. She even starts to like hanging out with her family. By the end of the trip, she can’t wait to get home and tell her friends all about the fantastic time that she had camping. Kloepper’s story is heartwarming and beautifully illustrated and I think it will be a really fun book to read out loud with your family.
Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold
I used to love Reading Rainbow when I was a kid, and I loved the episode that featured Faith Ringgold’s Tar Beach. Cassie Louise Lightfoot is eight years old, was born in 1931, and lives in Harlem in an apartment with a tar beach — a rooftop space that her family uses to eat meals and gather with friends during the summer months. It is her own island in the middle of the city, and at night, she dreams that she can fly off of her roof and over Harlem. Everything she sees she claims as her own — specifically the George Washington Bridge and the Union Building, two structures that her father has helped to build. The freedom that Cassie feels as she flies over her very own New York City, the stars shining bright around her, is a beautiful, and essential, reminder that our country has been built on the sacrifices of others and that often, freedom must first be found by looking inward.
Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga
Jasmine Warga’s Other Words for Home is a beautiful middle-grade novel in verse. Jude, a smart, brave, vibrant girl from Syria, moves with her mother to her uncle’s home in Cincinnati, leaving her father and brother behind — both in dangerous and uncertain situations. While she navigates a new school, a new family and a new culture, she is constantly pulled to her memories of home and concern for her family in Syria, a place misunderstood by her American classmates. As she begins to enjoy some of the freedoms that her new home provides — like trying out for her school play — she worries that she’ll lose her connection to her home. I loved the bravery of this book. Warga writes a strong, female, Muslim protagonist and beautifully confronts the complexities of the hijab in Muslim culture, as well as Islamophobia. Vital reading for both children and parents, and even better when read together.
– Margaret Leonard
Margaret Leonard is the owner, along with Jill Heinke Moen, of Dotters Books, an independent bookstore in Eau Claire. The shop, which specializes in books by a diverse range of authors, began as a book club and opened its doors in the fall of 2018. Follow Dotters Books on Instagram and Facebook.