School’s out for the summer, but studies show kids shouldn’t let their library cards languish over the break. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education recommends children spend at least 30 minutes reading every day to help stem “summer slide,” a decline in reading ability. These five books with local themes might inspire summer story times, as well as a few family field trips to see the featured settings in real life.
Growing Up with the River: Nine Generations on the Missouri
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This book chronicles the passage of time and all the changes that came with it. The reader sees through the eyes of nine generations of children who grew up along the Missouri River, from Hermann to St. Charles. The story, illustrated by Missouri landscape painter Bryan Haynes, is also rooted by a bur oak that grows from an acorn into a towering tree. All proceeds from the sale of Growing Up with the River, written by husband and wife Dan and Connie Burkhardt, go to the preservation nonprofit they founded, the Katy Land Trust.
This title is one of several Love Is All Around books that focus on different states and cities. The author, Wendi Silvano, is a former preschool and elementary teacher who lives in Colorado. The illustrator, Joanna Czernichowska, is a native of Poland who now calls San Francisco home. The book series encourages kids to look around and observe people and animals sharing love in different ways.
One of the Read Together/Do Together series of books from Arcadia Publishing, Lucky to Live in Missouri is part story book, part memory book. Like the other titles in the series, it combines read-aloud rhymes that focus on specific states and regions with prompts that encourage kids to record their own thoughts and memories about the places they call home. Author Kate B. Jerome began her career as a high school biology teacher and now boasts more than 25 years in the publishing industry, including stints as an editor, author, and more.
Fairy Floss: The Sweet Story of Cotton Candy
This St. Louis-centric book revolves around a fictional girl named Lily, her Aunt Mae, and their visit to the 1904 World’s Fair. At the fair, they learn about “Fairy Floss”—now known as cotton candy—and the many other inventions and innovations showcased at the exposition. Its author, Ann Ingalls, is a former special education teacher and Kansas City resident who’s penned more than 30 books.
Derrick is a dinosaur connoisseur who must decide whether to divert real dinosaurs who come upriver to invade St. Louis or to join them. Derrick and the Dinosaurs is the latest of three books set in St. Louis by local author and illustrator Dan Killeen. His other two titles star Tillie and Clementine, characters modeled after his real-life nieces.
