Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts

Sunday, May 10, 2026

Summer and Autumn Pop-Up Books from Phaidon

 

Summer Pops Up!
by Aurone Petit
Expected Publication May 20, 2026
Phaidon Press
Fiction
Pop Up Book 
12 Pages
Review copy provided by publisher





Summary From Publisher 
Winner, 2025 Best Baby Book Prize from the French Ministry of Culture

From family trips to ocean dips, experience summer’s everyday magic in this sturdy, neon pop-up book. With playful illustrations, engaging text, and pop-up surprises that toddlers (and parents) will love!

Designed especially for little hands, this bright, bold pop-up book brims with the joy of summer in every turn of the page. Perfectly portable and shaped for toddlers’ hands, this sturdy board book features six playful pop-up scenes that leap from the pages with high-contrast neon images – the yellow of sunshine and the pink of summer sunsets.

Celebrate the magic of summertime, from a busy bee zipping between blossoms to a bumpy ride in the family van, from spreading sunscreen on our faces to enjoying bare feet on a beach, and from diving into sunset seas to counting the stars at night. This book brings all our most-loved summer moments to life in a way that’s both familiar and fresh, clever and surprising. Every page bursting with the warm wonders of the season.

With Aurore Petit’s vibrant, playful illustrations, simple, engaging text, and pop-up surprises that toddlers (and parents!) will love, this book is a sensory celebration of summer’s everyday magic.

This is the first title in Aurore Petit’s seasonal pop-up series, publishing alongside Autumn Pops Up! and to be followed soon by winter and spring-themed books.


Autumn Pops Up!
by Aurone Petit
Expected Publication July 29, 2026
Phaidon Press
Fiction
Pop Up Book 
12 Pages
Review copy provided by publisher




Summary from Publisher

From falling leaves to Halloween, experience the delights of autumn in this neon, sturdy pop-up book. With playful illustrations, engaging text, and pop-up surprises that toddlers (and parents) will love!

Designed especially for little hands, this bright, bold pop-up board book brims with the magic of autumn in every turn of the page. Perfectly portable and shaped for toddlers’ hands, this sturdy book features six playful pop-up scenes that leap from the pages with high-contrast neon images that brighten even the most dreary of days – featuring the orange of pumpkins and fallen leaves.

From autumnal walks through woods filled with mushrooms, to tucking into a steaming bowl of pumpkin soup, sharing an umbrella on a rainy day to Halloween costumes, admiring the falling leaves to watching birds fly away for warmer weather, each spread captures the joy and beauty of the season in a way that’s both familiar and fresh, clever and surprising.

With Aurore Petit’s vibrant, playful illustrations, simple, engaging text, and pop-up surprises that toddlers (and parents!) will love, this book is a sensory celebration of autumn’s everyday magic.

This is the second title in Aurore Petit’s seasonal pop-up series, publishing alongside Summer Pops Up! and to be followed soon by winter and spring-themed books.

My Thoughts
What is more fun than a pop-up book? I remember looking at pop-up books as a child and being mesmerized. I could read them over and over again. These adorable pop-ups are made for the youngest readers. I have not read them with toddlers or babies, but my kindergarteners really love them, and they have stood up to repeated use. 
Each book uses the colors of the season (bright colors for summer and muted earthtones for autumn). 


Images from Amazon.com

Young readers will love these fun seasonal pop-up books!

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

How to Code a Sandcastle by Josh Funk and Sara Palacios

How to Code a Sandcastle 
A Girls Who Code book. 
by Josh Funk and Sara Palacios
Published May 15, 2018
Viking (Penguin Young Readers)
Fiction Picture Book
Hardcover
44 pages
Review copy provided by publisher

Goodreads Summary
From the computer science nonprofit Girls Who Code comes this lively and funny story introducing kids to computer coding concepts.
Pearl and her trusty rust-proof robot, Pascal, need to build a sandcastle before summer vacation is over, and they’re going to do it using code. Pearl breaks the big we-need-a-sandcastle problem into smaller steps, then uses conditionals, loops, and other basic coding concepts to tell Pascal exactly what to do. But building a sandcastle isn’t as easy as it sounds when surfboards, mischievous dogs, and coding mishaps get in the way! Just when it looks like the sandcastle might never work, Pearl uses her coding skills to save the day and create something even better: a gorgeous sandcastle kingdom!


My Thoughts
How to Code a Sandcastle takes a real problem and uses coding to try to solve it. The book shows how coding is just breaking things down to very small step and solving problems along the way. 
For someone, like me, to whom coding is a completely foreign language, it is a nice beginning to understanding some of the steps involved. When one attempt doesn't work out, Pearl doesn't give up, she just modifies the code for Pascal to try again. Thankfully there are more detailed coding definitions and descriptions in the back matter of the book to explain sequences, loops, etc. 
With summer coming, How to Code a Sandcastle would make a great intro to coding with a summer theme. 
I would recommend it most for grades 1-4. 

See what others have to say about this book:

Watch this great video review.