Long, hot summer days spent splashing in the sprinkler, drinking icy lemonade and taking a dip in the swimming pool. Water. My favorite part of summer. I love how water feels cool and refreshing as it slides down your throat or on your skin when you dive deep, emerge, and then let the water droplets evaporate.

Like poetry, water soothes the soul. The past couple of summers, I’ve shared water poetry with my son and his fellow campers at a community summer camp. We sit in the shade reading and talking about picture books and novels in verse: all poems about water. Then we write, water color, and play water games in the sun.

The art we absorb and the art we create cools and refreshes our souls.

Take a dip into these great books this summer!

Picture books:

• Of Walden Pond by Lesa Cline-Ransom invites you to see ice from two different perspectives: a poet’s and an entrepreneur’s.
• A Different Pond by Bao Phi lets us all see the water around us from an immigrant perspective.
• Water is Water by Miranda Paul shows the water cycle that flows in and around us in accessible verse.
• Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall lets you in to feel the fear and freedom of that first jump into the pool.
• We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom lifts your spirits in a call to action for safe, clean water for all.
• Water Land by Christy Hale offers a brilliant view of our land and water forms (hint: they mirror each other).
• Water Can Be . . . by Laura Purdie Salas encourages imagination and exploration of water.
• Annette Feels Free by Katie Mazeika shares the true story of a water hero.

For older kids (i.e. all of us), two novels in verse and a poem:

• Blood Brothers by Rob Sanders
• Starfish by Lisa Fipps
• beholden: a poem as long as a river by Rita Wong and Fred Wah