There’s something about summer that makes the whole world feel bigger. The days stretch out, the schedule loosens up, and suddenly there’s time, real time, for the kind of reading that carries you somewhere far away. When our kids were small, we’d spread a blanket in the backyard and read our way through stacks of picture books about safaris in Tanzania and bus rides through Burkina Faso. As they got older, the books got thicker and the destinations got more remote: a girl paddling alone across a lake in Mozambique, a boy keeping a diary of his four months in Japan. But the magic was always the same: you open a book and you’re somewhere else.
That’s what we’ve put together here: a summer reading stack that takes kids on adventures across the globe, from board books for the littlest explorers to chapter books that older readers won’t want to put down. We’ve picked books where the journey is the point, where kids can feel the dust of a Tanzanian grassland or the bustle of a Parisian street. Every one of these is a book we’d press into your hands at the market and say, “You have to read this one.”
Ages 0-2: Board Books for Tiny Globetrotters
Even the smallest readers can start exploring the world through shapes, sounds, colors, and faces from every corner of the globe. These board books are sturdy, beautiful, and perfect for reading together on a sunny afternoon.
Global Babies is one of those books that just works, every single time. Published by the Global Fund for Children, it features gorgeous photographs of babies from Guatemala to Bhutan, each one bundled, carried, and celebrated in the traditions of their culture. It’s simple (faces, colors, fabric) but the warmth is unmistakable. We love how even the youngest listeners light up when they see babies who look like them, and babies who look wonderfully different.
Paris becomes a treasure trove of triangles, rectangles, arches, and stars in this gorgeous board book by Ashley Evanson. Little ones learn their shapes through the landmarks of one of the world’s great cities: the Louvre, Notre-Dame, the Arc de Triomphe. The illustrations are bright and stylish, and it’s a terrific way to plant the seed that the wider world is full of beautiful things worth noticing.
Opuestos: Mexican Folk Art Opposites in English and Spanish (First Concepts in Mexican Folk Art)
Animal Talk: Mexican Folk Art Animal Sounds in English and Spanish (First Concepts in Mexican Folk Art)
Cynthia Weill’s Mexican Folk Art board book series is absolutely delightful. Each book features hand-carved, hand-painted wooden animal sculptures made by artisans from Oaxaca, Mexico. Opuestos teaches opposites and Animal Talk explores animal sounds, all in both English and Spanish. The folk art is stunning, the bilingual text is playful, and kids get a real sense of Mexican artistic tradition without even realizing they’re learning. We come back to these again and again.
Ages 3-5: Picture Books for Sunny Afternoons
This is the golden age of reading aloud, and these picture books are made for it: vivid, energetic stories about travel, adventure, and discovery that will have kids asking, “Read it again!”
We All Went on Safari by Laurie Krebs takes young readers on a counting adventure through the grasslands of Tanzania. Arusha, Mosi, Tumpe, and their friends spot wildebeests, elephants, lions, and giraffes as they count from one to ten in both English and Swahili. The illustrations are warm and inviting, and there’s a wonderful map and facts about Tanzania at the back. It’s one of those books that teaches effortlessly (counting, Swahili words, African wildlife) while being genuinely fun to read aloud.
What if the market is closed and you need to make an apple pie? Simple: you travel the world to gather your ingredients! Marjorie Priceman’s classic takes readers to Italy for wheat, France for eggs, Sri Lanka for cinnamon, and Jamaica for sugar cane. It’s silly, it’s charming, and it plants the wonderful idea that the everyday things in our kitchens connect us to places all around the globe. Kids absolutely love the over-the-top journey, and the recipe at the end is a great bonus.
Baptiste Paul’s debut picture book is pure energy. Set on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia, it follows a community pickup soccer game. Everyone plays, from tiny kids to grandmothers, through rain and mud and pure joy. The text is poetic and rhythmic, perfect for reading aloud, and the illustrations practically vibrate with movement. We love how this book captures what makes soccer the world’s game: all you need is a field, a ball, and people who want to play.
This is one of our all-time favorites. Biblioburro by Jeanette Winter tells the true story of Luis Soriano, a teacher in rural Colombia who loves books so much that his house overflows with them. His solution? He loads two burros with books and rides through the countryside, bringing stories to children in remote villages who have no library and no bookstore. It’s a beautiful, inspiring tale about the power of reading, and a wonderful reminder that adventures don’t always require a plane ticket. Sometimes all you need is a burro and a dream.
Ages 5-9: Journeys Near and Far
Kids in this age range are ready for richer stories: real and imagined journeys across Europe, Africa, and beyond. These books carry readers along on adventures that are funny, surprising, and full of heart.
Mitsumasa Anno’s wordless masterpiece takes readers on a breathtaking tour of northern Europe: its villages, farms, harbors, festivals, and cityscapes, all told through brilliantly detailed illustrations. There’s no text, so parent and child build the story together, spotting details and making discoveries on every page. We are always finding something new: a reference to a famous painting, a fairy tale character hidden in the crowd. It’s the kind of book you can return to dozens of times and never exhaust.
When young Audrey Hepburn walked into Hubert de Givenchy’s Paris studio for the first time, it was, as this book puts it, “the perfect fit.” Set in mid-century Belgium, the Netherlands, and Paris, this beautifully illustrated biography traces the friendship between two creative people who changed fashion and film. The illustrations by Philip Hopman are gorgeous, full of movement and style, and the story shows kids that some of the best adventures happen when two people inspire each other. A wonderful read for kids who love art, fashion, or just a great story about friendship.
Alexander McCall Smith brings his beloved detective to younger readers in this delightful mystery set in the Botswana countryside. Nine-year-old Precious Ramotswe is staying at a safari camp where a film crew is shooting a movie about a lion. But the lion goes missing! Precious and her resourceful friend Khumo have to use their wits to find out what happened. It’s a terrific adventure story with a real sense of place (the Botswana landscape is practically a character), and kids get to see a smart, confident African girl solve the case. We love the whole series.
My Rows and Piles of Coins by Tololwa Mollel tells the story of Saruni, a boy in Tanzania who carefully saves every coin he earns helping his mother at market. His dream? To buy a bicycle so he can carry goods to market and help his family even more. The setting, a Tanzanian village with its market stalls and dusty roads, is beautifully rendered, and the story captures something kids understand deeply: the determination to reach a goal, coin by coin. A wonderful window into daily life in East Africa, with a surprise ending that we won’t spoil!
Ages 8-12: Chapter Books for Long Summer Days
These are the books that swallow whole afternoons, the ones your kid carries to the hammock and doesn’t put down until dinner. Every one of them is a real journey, set in a vivid, specific place.
Rebecca Otowa’s diary-format book follows a young traveler through four months in Japan. It reads like the kind of journal a curious kid would actually keep, full of observations about Japanese food, festivals, school life, daily customs, and the small details that make a place feel real. We love this one for summer reading because it captures that feeling of being completely immersed in a new culture, noticing everything, and having your world expand with every new day.
Grace Lin’s Newbery Honor fantasy is a gorgeous adventure inspired by Chinese folklore. Minli, a young girl in a poor village, sets out on a quest to find the Old Man of the Moon and change her family’s fortune. Along the way, she encounters a dragon who can’t fly, a king who has everything but happiness, and stories-within-stories that weave together like the most intricate silk. The writing is luminous, the world-building is rich with Chinese mythology, and the themes (gratitude, resourcefulness, the power of stories) make it a book the whole family can talk about.
Nancy Farmer’s Newbery Honor novel is an extraordinary survival story set between Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Eleven-year-old Nhamo flees an arranged marriage by paddling a small boat across a lake, then must survive alone in the wilderness using her wits, her knowledge of the natural world, and the guidance of the African spirits she has grown up hearing about. It’s harrowing, beautiful, and deeply rooted in Shona culture and tradition. An unforgettable adventure for confident readers.
Momo is a girl in the mountains of Tibet whose beloved dog Pempa is stolen by traders. She doesn’t hesitate. She sets off on foot from the Himalayas to the bustling city of Calcutta to find him. The journey is long and dangerous, through landscapes that shift from snow-covered passes to tropical lowlands, and Momo meets people from every walk of life along the way. This Newbery Honor classic has been captivating young readers for generations, and for good reason: it’s a story about determination, love, and a journey that changes everything.
Pack Your Bags and Start Reading
Summer won’t last forever, but these books will stay with your kids long after the days get shorter. Whether your little one is just discovering the wider world through photographs of babies in Guatemala, or your older reader is trekking across Tibet with Momo, every one of these books opens a door to somewhere new. That’s what we love most about reading: it turns a lazy afternoon into an adventure.