Nothing says summer like ice cream. Of course, you can eat ice cream in any season but there is something especially delicious about a sweet cold treat on a hot summer day. Enjoy these equally delicious books with your kids maybe while eating a cone of mint chocolate chip or a dish of rainbow sherbet.
Gorilla Loves Vanilla by Chloe Strathie is about Sam who owns an ice cream store. Different animals come in and order flavors that they think they will like: fish for the cat and blue cheese for the mouse. But when Gorilla orders vanilla, they all think that the giant sundae that Sam makes looks delicious. Luckily, Gorillas don’t just love vanilla, they also love sharing.
Gerald, the lovable but slightly anxious Elephant in Mo Willems’s wonderful Elephant and Piggie series, isn’t so sure about sharing his ice cream in Should I Share My Ice Cream? He wants to share but he also really really likes ice cream. By the time he decides to share his ice cream melts. But it still ends happily when Piggie arrives with his ice cream and shares it. I love that these books deal with real dilemmas that kids have realistically and kindly.
Wemberly’s Ice-Cream Star by Kevin Henkes also features a worried preschooler who doesn’t know what to do with the ice cream star she is given and whether or not to share it. She wants to share with her stuffed bunny but doesn’t know how and she is worried about the ice cream dripping on her and making a mess. She comes up with a perfect solution.
Just One More by Jennifer Hansen Rolli is a simple but sweet book about Ruby, a young girl, who always wants one more of everything. But what happens when one more scoop of ice cream becomes too much?
Gail Gibbons is a master of picture book non-fiction and in Ice Cream: The Full Scoop she details the history of ice cream in a way that will keep kids engaged.
Ice Cream Summer by Peter Sis also tells the story of ice cream but with a twist. A young boy is writing to his grandfather and telling him about his summer and how he will be keeping up with his schoolwork. But in the cartoon-like pictures, we see that what he isn’t telling his grandfather is that he is doing all this through learning about ice cream.
Ice Cream Cones for Sale by Elaine Greenstein tells the story of the controversy about who invented the ice cream cone (four different men claim to have invented it).
For slightly older kids, The Sweetest Scoop: Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Revolution by Lisa Robinson is a biography of the duo behind the famous Ben & Jerry’s and all their wacky flavors.
Paletero Man by Lucky Diaz follows a young boy looking for the Palatero Man in his neighborhood. When he finally finds him he discovers that his pockets are empty but not to worry, his neighbors help him get his favorite treat. The book is sprinkled with Spanish words and phrases
The Boy Who Invented the Popsicle: The Cool Science Behind Frank Epperson’s Famous Frozen Treat by Anne Renaud is a non-fiction book that reads like fiction and tells the story of a young boy who loves experimenting on his back porch and one day decides to see what happens if he freezes a flavored soda water drink that he invented. The rest is history.