Best 5 Children's Books for Summer Reading! Recommendations from a Pediatric Speech Therapist
Authored by Elise Weinstein, M.S. , CCC-SLP, Speech Therapist at The Village Therapy Place
Summer is here and school is out! As you enjoy long, lazy days, take vacations and day trips, and spend time by the water, realize that by providing your child with summer experiences, you help your child develop his knowledge of the world. This, in turn, can help improve his vocabulary.
You can also explore summer adventures in books to stimulate language-developments.
Below are five recommendations and what I love about each for speech-language development.
Happy reading!
1. And Then Comes Summer By: Tom Brenner
· Synopsis:
This book follows the summer activities of a young boy, using a “when…then…” sentence format.
· What I Love:
o Variety of Activities and Vocabulary:
This book explores a variety of summer activities, such as going to a lake, sitting around a campfire, eating ice cream, mowing the lawn, riding a bike, going to the park, watching a parade, watching fireworks, and playing in the sprinklers. You may or may not get to experience all of these activities yourself, but either way- your child hears the relevant vocabulary and learns about special summer activities.
o Variety of Verbs:
I love that this book uses less-common verbs, such as “swap,” “unfurl,” “toss,” and “swoop.” We may not use these verbs frequently in everyday conversation, which is why reading is so important for vocabulary development.
o Alliteration:
This book uses alliteration in phrases throughout the book, such as “dash down to the beach,” “pedal to the parade,” and “practically panting.” Listening to alliteration will help your child develop his phonological awareness skills and awareness of the initial sound in words.
o Sentence Structure:
This book is formatted using the same sentence structure throughout the book: “when ___, then ____.” Exposing children to new, more advanced sentence structures can help develop their use of complex sentences as well.
o Use of Similes:
There are a few similes in this book, such as “the days stretch out like a slow yawn” and “every day is like a Saturday.” Talk about why comparison (verbal reasoning) and try to think of another way to finish the simile.
2. Should I Share My Ice Cream? By: Mo Willems
· Synopsis:
Elephant is trying to decide if he will share his ice cream with his friend, Piggie.
· What I Love:
o Point-of-View:
This book is a great way to work on developing the ability to look at a situation from another person’s perspective. This is important for social-emotional development (e.g. thinking about others) as well as pragmatic language development (making appropriate comments in social settings requires an understanding of the other person’s point-of-view). This book shows both the consideration of a friend’s point-of-view (“Piggie will like this flavor”) and examples of thinking about a situation from another’s point of view (e.g. “Piggie is not here. She does not know I have ice cream.”)
o Future tense:
Many children’s books are written using past or present tense, but this book uses a lot of future tense, as Elephant ponders what he will do. This is a great opportunity to model and practice using the future tense “will.”
o Irony:
This book has an ironic, unexpected ending. Talk to your child about why the ending is so interesting and what they would have done in that situation.
3. The Sandcastle That Lola Built By: Megan Maynor
· Synopsis:
Lola goes to the beach to build a sandcastle and makes new friends along the way.
· What I Love:
o Post-Noun Elaboration:
The text is written with post-noun elaboration, which means that further description of the noun comes after the noun (e.g. “This is the sea glass that signals mermaids from the tall, tall tower.”). Understanding post-noun elaboration is more advanced than understanding adjectives, which come before a noun (e.g. tall tower). This book provides many opportunities to expose your child to post-noun elaboration.
o Repetition:
The text of the book is repetitive, as it keeps adding more to the initial sentence, “This is the sandcastle that Lola built.”
o Print-Salient Text:
Print-Salient text is text that commands the child’s attention, and it is important for helping developing children’s awareness of print. This book employs print-saliency when describing the tower Lola built as the
“tall,
tall
tower.”
By placing each word on its own line, your child’s attention is drawn to the words beside the illustrations. It is also a clever depiction of the concept (i.e. what it means to be “tall”).
o Problem-Solving:
There are many problems throughout the book (e.g. a boy accidentally smashes Lola’s tower), and the characters calmly figure out how to solve their problems. This is a great opportunity for your child to think of his own solution (e.g. before reading what the characters’ solutions are) and to talk about how the problem was resolved.
o Emotions/Dealing with Disappointment:
The book shows Lola remaining calm despite small disappointments, but also shows her feeling said about bigger disappointments. This is a great opportunity to discuss disappointment, the emotions we feel, appropriate reactions, and how to handle disappointing situations.
o Nouns as Modifiers:
By age 2½, children should begin using nouns as modifiers (e.g. trash can, cookie dough). This book has examples of using nouns to later describe characters (e.g. “Frisbee Dude” and “Minnesota Girl”).
4. Flip Flop! By: Dana Meachen Rau
· Synopsis:
Two friends decide what activities to pursue on a summer day.
· What I Love:
o Summer Vocabulary:
As the girls go through their day, they experience many different summer activities. This provides opportunity to introduce many vocabulary targets, including: swim, pool, tide, cannonballs, float, dock, sail, fair, zoo, coaster, prize, fireworks, fireflies, ice cream cone, frozen pop, etc.
o Rhymes
This book is written in rhyme, which is great for developing phonological awareness skills. Can your child fill in the rhyming word to finish the sentence?
o “Or” Questions:
In each situation, the girls have two choices for what to do. This is a good book to use when practicing how to ask/answer simple “or” questions.
o “Why” Questions:
Ask your child which option s/he would choose, as well as why s/he would choose that.
5. A Boy, A Dog, and A Frog By: Mercer Mayer
· Synopsis:
A boy heads down to the lake with his dog and tries his best to catch a frog he spots.
· What I Love:
o Wordless Picture Book:
Wordless pictures are wonderful because they focus on storylines and sequences. The pictures usually depict emotion well and provide opportunities for making predictions and inferences. For more on wordless picture books, see my blog post here (insert hyperlink).
o Predictions and Inferences:
As mentioned above, wordless picture books often have pictures that are great for making predictions (e.g. where do you think the boy and the dog are going? What do you think the boy is going to do next?). There are also many opportunities to make inferences and draw conclusions based on the pictures (e.g. who do you think the footsteps are from?).
o Emotions:
Throughout the book, the characters’ faces are very expressive. Ask your child how he thinks the characters feel and how he figured it out (e.g. how do you think the frog feels? What about his face made you think he is sad?).
o Spatial Terminology:
This book has many opportunities to describe location using the spatial terms “on,” “under,” “between,” “over,” and “in.” Examples include:
- On: The bucket is on his head. The frog is on the lily pad.
- Over: The boy trips over the branch.
- Under: The boy goes under the water.
- In: The dog is in the water too.
- Between: The frog is between the boy and the dog.
o Retell:
Wordless pictures books are great books to let children practice telling the story using the pictures as a guide. Since all the action is depicted in the pictures (i.e. there is nothing to “remember” from the text), it is often easier to retell these stories.
What are some of your favorite summer story books? Share your suggestions in the comments below!
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