Heatwave by Lauren Redniss (Random House Studio, 40 pages, ages 4-8). A child and dog seek relief from a brutally hot summer day, heading for the beach after a basketball game is cancelled. Even that doesn’t provide much respite, as a man reads a newspaper with the headline “Record heat across globe” in a nod to climate change. Then a wind blows, clouds roll in, and a single blue raindrop appears across the red page. A downpour changes the red to blue, as the sun sets, the moon rises, and the weather cools, just in time for sleeping.

I’ve been reading Doug Salati’s Hot Dog to classes recently, and this reminded me of that book, with its spare text and warm and cool colors that convey the heat of a summer day and the relief of finding coolness.

Summer Is Here by Renée Watson, illustrated by Bea Jackson (Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 40 pages, ages 3-7). A young girl takes readers through a typical summer day, personifying summer as she wakes the girl up with her early morning light. There’s swimming, double Dutch jump-roping, a cookout in the park that includes a water balloon fight, an ice cream truck, and bubbles. As the sun goes down, and the girl gets ready for bed, she whispers a wish to the moon that summer could stay.

The narrator reminded me of a young Ryan Hart from Renée Watson’s chapter book series. It’s a kinder, gentler introduction to summer than Heatwave, with both the text and illustrations capturing many joys of the season and could serve as a prompt for kids to write about their summer memories.