Summer means water, sun, hanging out, and adventure! Adventures wait around every corner from our imaginations to our living rooms to the moon. Begin your summertime adventures with these books, and then head out on your own adventures.
When I first started teaching one of my favorite books was If You Seek Adventure by Fulvio Testa. In this sweet book with minimal text, making it perfect for toddlers, children explore and find adventure in near and far places. Start with this book, and have your child list out the adventure they want to go on this summer.
Two children explore a cave, in A Dark, Dark Cave by Eric Hoffman, but just as it is starting to get very exciting their father comes in and tells them to quiet down. They do, for a time, but each adventure always gets a little too exciting to keep quiet. An excellent story of how imagination can take you on the wildest of adventures. Perfect for a rainy day when your adventures can’t be outside.
I have recommended this book before, but it fits so well with this theme and is such a great book
that I am recommending it again. A small boy explores the forest around his house in Flashlight by Lizi Boyd. This is a fantastic read before going on your nighttime adventures.
Children go on an adventure to the playground, only to find once they get there they enjoyed getting there was more fun in Playground by Mies van Hout. Gorgeous, bright illustrations bring their adventure to life. After reading this book take a walk to your neighborhood park, and find your adventure. Take pictures along the way, and add images of the imaginary obstacles you overcame along with the story of your experience for your child to recreate it.
In Finding Wild by Megan Wagner Lloyd and Abigail Halpin, two children strike out on an adventure
to find the wild. And they while they find the wild when they return they realize that the wild was around them all the time. After reading this book go on a walk around your neighborhood looking for the wild- what do you find? Is there wild in your own yard? Make up a story with your child about the wild letting. You can make it into a book by letting them dictate their parts of the story to you, and illustrate it.
In Blaze Finds the Trail by C.W. Anderson, Billy and his horse, Blaze, explore a new trail, but when they go around an obstacle, the end up lost. Luckily, using his horse sense, Blaze finds the way back home! This is one a series of books that would be perfect as a bedtime read aloud.
Can dogs go to the moon? Well, one does in Max Goes To the Moon: A Science Adventure with Max the Dog by Jeffery Bennett. Full of science facts, this books tells of how Max ended up going to the moon and how that starts the colonization of the moon. While this book may have too many words for the youngest children, it is engaging enough that it makes a great bedtime story read over a few days. And to top it off, you can see it read by an astronaut from space using this link!
As you read this books with your child discuss if the adventure is near or far (beginning math concepts). Ask what one they would most want to go on, and then encourage your child to draw a picture of that adventure and dictate to you what it is.
As always, I hope you enjoy these books, and have fun adventuring with your child! You welcome to use this blog, in whole or part, with credit to Kim Bogren Owen and Words Reflected. Please add your recommendations for additional books about adventures in the comments.
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