Make a Splash with These Summer Read-Alouds

Isabelle McConville

What are some of your favorite summertime activities? Is it going to the neighborhood pool or spending the day scouring your neighborhood for ice cream? Maybe your perfect day is spent at the beach building the tallest sandcastles you can. One of our favorite things to do is flip through our prettiest, merriest picture books, filled with big-hearted tales and rhymes aplenty. If you’ve been on the hunt for summer read-aloud stories for the whole family, we’ve got you covered.

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Our Pool

Lucy Ruth Cummins

Hardcover

$19.99

This item is currently out of stock online.

Notes From Your Bookseller

It’s a scorching day in the city and that can only mean one thing: it’s a pool day! Friends, family and neighbors flock to the pool to cool off and spend a day in the sun in Pool Day, a lyrical and gorgeously illustrated tale from Lucy Roth Cummins.

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Jabari Jumps: (A Motivational Story of Courage, Overcoming Fear, and Building Confidence - For Kids Ages 4-8)

Gaia Cornwall

Paperback

$8.99

This item is currently out of stock online.

Notes From Your Bookseller

An epic pool day inevitably brings a challenge only the bravest kids will attempt — the diving board. Join Jabari as he faces his fears and makes a splash for all the neighborhood to see in Jabari Jumps.

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Paletero Man

Lucky Diaz

Hardcover

$19.99

This item is currently out of stock online.

Notes From Your Bookseller

A surefire way to know that summer is finally here is the unmistakable calls from the paletero man. Grab your own favorite icy paleta flavor and have a blast flipping through this vibrant, colorful and musical tale from the one and only Lucky Diaz.

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Sandcastle

Einat Tsarfati

3.8

Hardcover

$17.99

This item is currently out of stock online.

Notes From Your Bookseller

What’s your favorite part about building a sandcastle? Is it digging a menacing moat, or do you revel in toppling the towers after you’re done? Enjoy a day at the beach and let your imagination run wild with endless possibilities for your dream creation with Sandcastle.

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Pete the Cat Screams for Ice Cream!

James Dean, Kimberly Dean

Hardcover

$19.99

This item is currently out of stock online.

Notes From Your Bookseller

Pete is back and cooler than ever. Can he learn to put his friendships first or will the sticky, delicious promise of his favorite tasty treat take first priority? You’ll love reading these pages out loud with the whole family — don’t be surprised when it makes you hungry.

Kids What We Are Reading

Poured Over: Emily Wilson on Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea

Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea by Emily Wilson takes readers on a tour through the ancient world for an entertaining examination of Greek and Roman literature and their impact on our modern world. Emily joins us to talk about the joys and challenges of interpreting antiquity, the stakes of poetic form and re-translating The Odyssey with cohost Jenna Seery.

Celebra el Mes de la Herencia Hispana con libros que inspiran, emocionan y dejan recuerdos imborrables.

Este Mes de la Herencia Hispana, te invitamos a descubrir una selección de libros para adultos y chicos que destacan el talento, la creatividad y la diversidad de grandiosos escritores latinoamericanos. Son historias que entretienen, inspiran, y nos permiten acercarnos a distintas experiencias y perspectivas, mientas celebramos las aportaciones de la comunidad hispana en los Estados Unidos.

The Black Shield: A Guest Post from Wilbur L. Cooper

In The Black Shield, reporter Wilbert L. Cooper explores the complex lives of Black cops living and working in Cleveland as part of the Black Shield organization. Read on for an essay from Wilbur L. Cooper about writing The Black Shield. When I talk about The Black Shield, I often tell people that I started writing it in 2020, the year of George Floyd's murder. I do this because the book is nominally about Black cops, and in the aftermath of Floyd's murder, there was a lot of talk about diversity as a panacea for the racial problems of American policing. Some people made the argument that the hiring of more Black cops would ensure that what happened to Floyd would never happen again. And it's true, I did spend 2020 talking to experts and historians, diving into police archives and reading studies. I did a lot of real journalism stuff. But if I’m being honest, I didn't start thinking about Black cops in 2020. I've been reflecting on the conflicting promise and plight of Black cops my whole life, because I was born into a family of Black cops. I've had family members in the Cleveland police department since the end of World War II up through the Black Lives Matter Era. And so I’ve been thinking about Black cops and what they mean and what they do since I was a child watching my mother, a strong Black woman named Gayle, don a blue uniform and a silver badge. Even as a little child, I desperately wanted to know who my mother transformed into when she went out into the world with a city-issued gun in her holster. And when there have been these visceral incidents of police violence like George Floyd or Tyre Nichols, I've wondered, What my mother's role could be in an institution like that? What does that killing have to do with the work of my father, my sister, my uncle and great uncles? To answer that question, I've been having talks with my family that I never had before, tracing their journeys into policing, as well as talks with their peers and Black cops from all across the country of various generations. So while The Black Shield encapsulates my own story, it's also filled with all of their testimony. Their witnessing for you from behind the blue wall is more harrowing than what you might hear from an activist who advocates for police abolition. For the readers who are still wondering if diversity can make policing work for Black folks, you will have a lot to think about when reading my book. But The Black Shield also addresses much bigger issues of family, assimilation, survival in America, and freedom. I hope that you all will go on that journey with me.