July is a wildly great time to celebrate wildlife! We’ve seen lots of pictures and reports about one side effect of social lockdowns in many locations giving urban dwellers more up-close visits by wildlife who generally steer clear of busy streets. Whether you’ve seen bears, coyotes, bunnies, turkeys, deer, or other wildlife up close lately, let’s get up close with some in books!
In a board book format with high-contrast pictures and simple text, Tiger Tales’ Hello, Animals! by Smriti Prasadam-Halls with illustrations by Emily Bolam is just right for the youngest of wildlife bookworms. If you’re looking for a present for a newborn and their family, this fits the bill perfectly.
Toddlers will be eager to explore Floris Books’ Hello Animals: How Do You Sleep? by Loes Botman, especially if given the opportunity to “read it again and again” when it may be time for your own little wild one to go to sleep, too. This one works well for an outdoor nap time–billed as “just a rest,” of course.
National Geographic publishes a series of beginning reader books about the natural world and about a dozen of these have been recorded with professional voice actors by Live Oak Media. You can find each title in kit form, with a compact disc and photo-rich pictures, as well as in the new format, Wonderbook, which binds an internal audiobook player right into the print book. Start small with Ants by Melissa Stewart and narrated by Nancy Wu, and work your way through the wildlife kingdom to Pandas by Anne Schreiber and narrated by Joe Towne.
From Pajama Press, the new picture book Benjamin’s Blue Feet, written and illustrated by Sue Macartney, is receiving well-deserved press right now, so come explore the wildlife of the Galapagos with a friendly blue-footed booby. You aren’t likely to see this bird in your own neighborhood!
The Walrus and the Caribou by Maika Harper, illustrated by Marcus Cutler, and published by Inhabit Media, received a starred review
from Booklist Magazine. Enjoy this picture book retelling of the Inuit creation story about how wildlife attributes–like tusks and antlers–might have needed some juggling to get things to look as we know them now. Follow that up with Inhabit Media’s beautiful A Children’s Guide to Arctic Butterflies by Mia Pelletier, illustrated by Danny Christopher, to discover a form of wildlife you might not have expected to live so far north.
Wildlife adapts in many ways to live in many environments where different needs and challenges may present themselves. Nose Knows: Wild Ways Animals Smell the World by Emmanuelle Figueras, illustrated by Claire De Gastold, and published by What On Earth Books, offers a snootful of information independent readers and scientifically inclined preschoolers will enjoy. Publishers Weekly starred their review of this one, a follow up to Eye Spy: Wild Ways Animals See the World, written and illustrated by Guillaume Duprat.
Ready to go exploring wildlife on your own with your young scientist? Take along Agnes & Aubrey’s Take Me Outdoors: A Nature Journal for Young Explorers by Mary Richards to record what you discover in your wildlife investigations. This is a write-in activity book with information, puzzles, plenty of suggested activities, and lots more.
Will you find moths or butterflies? Ants or hawks? Dragonflies or trout? Celebrate your local wildlife respectfully.
While every day is a good day to listen here are some extra ideas for July 18, which is World Listening Day.
listen for the natural soundscape you find. Use your audiobook literacy skills to help you notice and identify the rich sounds of your local environment and how they change from hour to hour through the day, and as you move from place to place, even if it’s just from one point to another in a walk around your block or up and down the staircase of your building.
Several countries, towns, and neighborhoods around the world celebrate official Picnic Days in July. Even in a year when attending a big outdoor gathering might not work well, you can still have a variety of picnic events on a smaller scale. Pack a basket or a paper bag, take a tablecloth or a towel to a park, to your own backyard or porch, or even your living room floor, and enjoy a July picnic. Besides the food, be sure to pack a good book or three to share between courses.
If you’ve had the opportunity to take your picnic outdoors, you may have a variety of tiny visitors, including ants and, of course, flies. If this seems a likely part of your picnic, pack along Cicada Books’ 
suggestions, including recipes for kid-friendly outdoor meals. Even if you and yours won’t be preparing these specific dishes, you’ll find inspiration for including some of your own warm weather treats in this recent 
rich in exploration and learning opportunities just right for preschoolers. In 
Fathers receive their special day of public (and family) recognition on the third Sunday of June. To celebrate, we’ve gone to our stacks to show off some books featuring stories (and pictures) about dads. 
Barefoot Books’ board book 
For dads and kids who are ready for some activity inspiration, there’s 
Beginning readers can share Toon Books’ 
unfolding the story of a little boy who decides to go off roaming on his own in Central park when his father becomes absorbed in a boring adult conversation with another grownup. Follow Luke’s path up hill, down dale, around pond and over puddle, and lots more. Then dad and child reading at home can draw their own maps of neighborhood paths they might imagine taking when on the loose.
Stark and illustrated by Belgian artist Kitty Crowther, translated by Julia Marshall, has appeal as international as its creators. This picture book offers a tale of adventure undertaken by a small boy and his grandfather, both of whom are in need of escaping their circumstances if even for a brief sally into the wider world. If you’re connected across generations by video chat between grandparent and child households these days, share this one so granddads and grandchildren can have a shared experience, too
McCluskey’s 
Brand new and available in two different formats from two of our favorite publishers is Shabazz Larkin’s The Thing about Bees: A Love Letter. The picture book version was published by 
publishing is 
Also from Live Oak Media, be sure to listen to Odyssey Honor winner Trombone Shorty, the picture book autobiography by 
Tilbury House’s recent picture book, 
Black lives they reflect. One of Worcester Public Library’s bookmobiles sports a giant reproduction of 
There’s a lot of Black joy and shared human experiences 
beyond the United States, of course. Author artist 
From Spanish publisher NubeOcho, and available in both Spanish and English editions, 
with gorgeous illustrations by Anna Cunha, may be the perfect book for this pandemic summer of changed routines in readers’ own lives. Each day of her summer season, Afiya’s white dress collects the beuty of that day’s adventures.
readers in a colorfully illustrated edition published by Barefoot Books. 
The Audio Publishers Association’s Sound Learning initiative has updated both their visual display and the list of research articles that address the importance of listening to becoming a more literate, aware, and empathetic person. If you aren’t already an audiobook fan, you might want to start 
Live Oak Media is well known for developing and producing high quality read-along recordings of award winning picture books. This might be the time to explore Jon Agee’s 
older listening readers can find inspiration both as poets and basketball players by tuning into the 
This year 
he delivers author Jacqueline Briggs Martin’s 
Springtime offers so many inviting ways to explore and celebrate nature that we’ve decided to offer the chance to teachers and librarians to win a nature exploration picture book shelf! The collection includes seven different books, one for each day of the week, and everybody can follow these links to the free web-based resources their publishers are offering. To win the collection of picture books, comment below about how you’ll use them in your classroom or library next spring. To enter to win, you need to enter your comment by May 20.
Libby Walden with illustrations by Clover Robin and published by Tiger Tales. Whether the walk you can take in a nearby natural setting—a park, your back yard, or maybe another environment—shares some of the plant and wildlife features in these books can make for a great discussion itself. You can find more ideas for building on experiencing your own and a picture book nature walk by visiting our 
readers, with gorgeously bright illustrations by Vanina Starkoff. Here’s a read that can inspire kids and adults alike to see the world beyond our window views with fresh eyes.
Over at Gecko Press, Clotilde Perrin’s newest picture book promises you may never see anyone’s house the same again! 
Older readers in your household can take a staycation with 
on endless adventures with Tom Sawyer. Bookworms will delight in having a whole shelf of retold classics including tales from Shakespeare and romance from Charlotte Bronte! There’s plenty here to make time at home pass quickly.
Floris Books has both picture books and novels for older readers that are great ways to mark Children’s Book Week, too. Author Theresa Breslin’s 
From What on Earth Books come two environmentally conscious titles. Planet SOS: 22 Modern Monsters Threatening Our Environment (and What You Can Do to Defeat Them!) is a beautifully illustrated collection of the monsters threatening our planet right now. This book challenges young eco-crusaders to make small changes that can have big impacts on climate change. Also from What on Earth is Every Second: 
100 Lightning Strikes, 8,000 Scoops of Ice Cream, 200,000 Text Messages, 1 Million Gallons of Cow Burps … and Other Incredible Things That Happen Each Second Around the World, an illustration-first that reveals intriguing environmental facts taking place around the world every second. Did you know that every second, 15,000 plastic bottles are produced and only1,600 are recycled during the same time?
Publishers, is the story of a little girl who uses her voice for good in the middle of a disaster. When the stars are shrouded by smog and humans can no longer marvel at them, two stars yell at Earth and cause Earth to start sobbing. Earth feels sick and begins to shake, and it seems like there’s nothing anyone can do… until a little girl named Axiom uses a megaphone to share a message of change to make Earth feel better. Because she chose to raise her voice for change, Earth finally stops shaking and the stars twinkle brightly again.
Finally, King Leonard’s Teddy, from Child’s Play, carries a strong environmental message everyone needs to hear. King Leonard is very rich and has everything he could possibly wish for. If anything breaks, he doesn’t try to fix it. He simply buys a new one! That is, until his favorite teddy bear rips and he realizes buying a new one just wouldn’t be the same. On his journey to fix his special bear, King Leonard learns a valuable lesson about reducing, reusing, and recycling, and realizes he has everything he could wish for!