A book is better than a screen

A Summertime Picture Book List!

The Orchard Window by Daniel Garber

Most of our picture books are tucked away in boxes… as we are moving…again. I feel completely out of whack with the books gone. It’s like I’m missing a piece of myself. I’ll go down to the bookshelves to look up something, to reference something, and remember it’s all gone. We have a handful of favorites out…but I’m still missing so many others. These books become like friends to us. How wonderful it is to plop down on a comfy sofa on a stormy summer afternoon and read an endless pile of picture books. Our youngest two spend so much time listening to me read to them but a good picture book should be enjoyed by all. If a picture book can’t be enjoyed by all ages…then I would dare say it’s not one worth keeping. I’ve noticed that even my teenagers will migrate to the living room soon after I begin reading and this makes me happy. The great children’s book author and illustrator, Barbara Cooney, said that she illustrated for and to people. She didn’t draw or write down to children but created art that elevated the imagination and inspired the viewer.

In the quest to combat the incessant barrage of technology everywhere we turn and the overall screen addictions families are facing…one of the greatest proactive steps we can take as mothers, homemakers, and parents is provide them with something better. A book is better than a screen everyday and the more we delight in stories, in reading them and discussing them, in immersing ourselves in them, the more likely they will be to choose a book over a screen when given the option.

I hope to continue this as a series, “A book is better than a screen” and share our favorite seasonal picture books, as well as chapter books our older children have loved. I’d also love to share my favorite homeschooling, motherhood, and parenting related books. So stay tuned for those posts if you are a fellow book lover!

I wanted to share a list of favorite picture books we’ve loved over the years. Some are old and worn and some are new to us and recommended by a friend whose home picture book library is incredible and rivals the picture book section at the public library. These are all such beautifully written and illustrated stories that have an interwoven theme of summertime. Enjoy!!

When I was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey

One morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey

(…We love Robert McCloskey!)

Over and Under the Pond by Kate Messner

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner

My Little Artist by Donna Green

The Raft by Jim LaMarche

Pond by Jim LaMarche

Summer Sun Risin by W. Nikola-Lisa

Frog and Toad Books…(all the time)…by Arnold Lobel

The Gardener by Sarah Stewart

Brambly Hedge..Summer Story…by Jill Barklem

Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco

The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant

Summertime in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran

Happy summer reading and many blessings to you!

Lauren