All right, it's True Confessions time: I'm a sucker for books whose covers scream, "Summer!" 

My all-time favourite summer cover is Alice Petersen's short story collection, All the Voices Cry, and when the book came out in 2012, I cooked up reason after reason to feature that gorgeous cover on the 49th Shelf main page. Because I loved that cover—the lake, horizon, the just-perceptible haze. I loved that leap, with arms and legs outstretched—a moment in midair. This is summer: ephemeral, soaring, perfect. 

Some of this year's best summer covers take a similar approach, and the results are just as pleasing, such as the bestselling graphic novel, This One Summer, by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki:

Mating for Life, by Marissa Stapley, features raft-leaps as well, perhaps fitting for this novel about mothers, daughters, and sisters and the chances we take in our lives. 

Last summer's Arguments With the Lake, by Tanis Rideout, poems imagined from the life and experiences of Great Lake swimmer Marilyn Bell, is just as compelling with a vintage feel. 

With its knobby knees and bare legs, I'm also a bit besotted with the cover for Vikki VanSickle's middle-grade novel about the summer of 1962, Summer Days, Starry Nights. 

It puts me in mind of this cover I love from a recent reissue of A Handful of Time, by Kit Pearson, which, with its cottage setting, is such a perfect summer book for young readers. 

And we've got more retro styling in these next two books by university presses. Dale Barbour's Winnipeg Beach came out last year, the story of "the Coney Island of the West." 

Julia Harrison's A Timeless Place: The Ontario Cottage considers "a place where memories are treasured, national identity is celebrated, spiritual balance is restored, and a few dark secrets are kept." 

Speaking of summer cottages, James Ross is back with a sequel to Cottage Daze, his new title, Still in a Daze at the Cottage, which features a Muskoka chair (of course). 

And how about those dunes on the cover of Lorne Elliott's novel, Beach Reading, illustrated by Timothy Elliott? 

It's only just June, but can you tell that I'm already dreaming summer reads? I'm so looking forward to seeing the scenes on these covers come to life.