Alright folks, we have just a week of Summer Learning left! There’s still plenty of time to sign up, log your reading, and win prizes. With warm days and late sunsets, summer days can feel endless sometimes. One of the best ways to take advantage of these extra long days is to have an adventure, so we wanted to highlight some books for the adventurer in all of us. In the Reading Without Walls booklist, children and adults alike can explore the stars, planets, and space in these great fiction and non-fiction titles. Prefer to keep your feet on the ground? It's A Small World After All booklist highlights inclusive picture books featuring children from all over the world. These books celebrate both our differences and similarities in the experiences we all share. Care to adventure closer to home? The Walk & Roll booklist explores all the fun times you can have on a bicycle, skateboard, or on foot. Lastly, have a totally new adventure in the Wild and Wonderful: Animals on Land, Air, and Sea booklist, featuring colorful and informative books about animals, or have an adventure at an Amusement Park.
Whatever kind of adventure you want this summer, San Jose Public Library is here to help guide you. Here are a few more favorites:
Reading Without Walls
Ada and the Galaxies by Alan Lightman. For Pre-Readers. Ada knows that the best place for star-gazing is on the island in Maine where she vacations with her grandparents. By day, she tracks osprey in the trees, paddles a kayak, and hunts for shells. But she's most in her element when the sun goes down and the stars blink to life. Will the fog this year foil her plans, or will her grandfather find a way to shine a spotlight on the vast puzzle of the universe ... until the weather turns?
Snatched From Earth by Bruce Coville. For Readers. When Tim Tompkins dreamed of visiting other galaxies, he didn't think he would do it as a captive of an alien, and now he must try to survive and find his way back home.
Rogue Princess by B.R. Myers. For Teens. Princess Delia must marry in order to secure an alliance and save her failing planet but, hoping for true love, she steals a spaceship and finds Aidan, a handsome stowaway, aboard in this retelling of Cinderella.
Find more great books on the Reading Without Walls: Stars, Planets, and Space Booklist.
Wild And Wonderful: Animals on Land, Air, and Sea
5-minute Baby Animal Stories by Libby Romero. For Readers. Twelve heart warming true stories about baby animals with stunning photos
An Anthology of Aquatic Life by Sam Hume. For Readers. Dive under water to explore all the magic that happens in the biggest oceans, lakes, rivers, to the tiniest puddle. Explore animals, plants, and everything aquatic in this unique book full of beautiful photos and illustrations.
Animal Teams: How Amazing Animals Work Together in the Wild by Caroline Stamps. For Readers. "Featuring a stunning blend of illustrations with photographs, this fascinating book takes young readers through a range of habitats to discover how different groups of animals work together to survive in their environments."
Find more great books on the Wild and Wonderful: Animals on Land, Air, and Sea Booklist.
Walk & Roll
Together We Ride by Valerie Bolling. For Pre-Readers. Told in rhyming text, a young African American girl learns to ride a bike, with the help of her father.
Let's Go by Julie Flett. For Pre-Readers and Readers. An extraordinary book that celebrates skateboarding, family, and community. Every day, a little boy watches kids pass by on skateboards, and dreams of joining them. One day, his mother brings a surprise: her old skateboard, just for him!
Sarai and the Around the World Fair by Sarai Gonzalez. For Readers/Pre-Teens. When Sarai outgrows her bike, she worries she will never get to travel anywhere, until an around the world fair at school teaches her that with a little imagination, she can go anywhere she wants.
Find more great books on the Walk & Roll Booklist.
Amusement Park Adventures
The Midnight Fair by Gideon Sterer. For Pre-Readers. An evocative wordless picture book conveys the story of how a magical fairground comes to life far outside the city before wild animals emerge from a nearby woodland and share an exuberant night of rides, snacks, and prizes.
Malo and the Merry-Go-Round by Maria Dek. For Pre-Readers & Readers. It is a beautiful day and Malo has promised to help his best friend Poto make pickles. But when Malo hears there's a new merry-go-round in the forest, all bets are off.
Happily Ever Island by Crystal Cestari. For Teens. "When Disney superfan and hopeless romantic Madison gets the chance to test run Disney's newest fully-immersive vacation destination that allows guests to become their favorite Disney character for a week, the eighteen-year-old college freshman jumps at the opportunity and begs her best friend Lanie to come along"
Find more great books on the It's a Small World After All Booklist.
It's a Small World, After All
Bisa's Carnaval by Joana Pastro. For Pre-Readers & Readers. In the city of Olinda, Brazil, Clara is looking forward to the Carnaval street parade, with the colorful, fantastic costumes that her great-grandmother makes for the family--but her Bisa is too old to follow the parade, so Clara decides to bring the parade to her.
When Lola Visits by Michelle Sterling & Aaron Paul Asis. For Pre-Readers & Readers. For one young girl, summer is the season of no school, of days spent at the pool, and of picking golden limes off the trees. But summer doesn't start until her lola--her grandmother from the Philippines--comes for her annual visit. When Lola visits, the whole family gathers to cook and eat and share in their happiness of another season spent together.
My Day With the Panye by Tami Charles. For Pre-Readers & Readers. In the hills above Port-au-Prince, a young girl named Fallon wants more than anything to carry a large woven basket to the market, just like her Manman. As she watches her mother wrap her hair in a mouchwa, Fallon tries to twist her own braids into a scarf and balance the empty panye atop her head, but realizes it's much harder than she though.
Find more great books on the It's a Small World After All Booklist.
If you've read any of these titles, we'd love to hear from you! Share your thoughts on Beanstack (the site to log your summer reading) by writing a review.
(Information Updated: June 2025)
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