And Then Comes Summer

by Tom Brenner, Jaime Kim (Illustrator)

Overview

“Summer’s smells, sounds, rhythms, and rituals unspool luxuriantly in this tribute to the season.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

When the days stretch out like a slow yawn, and the night is full of crickets singing . . . then it’s time to get ready for summer! From fireworks and ice-cream trucks, to lemonade stands and late bedtimes, to swimming in the lake and toasting marshmallows, there’s something for everyone in this bright and buoyant celebration of the sunny season. Tom Brenner’s lovely, lyrical ode to summers spent outdoors will strike a chord with anyone who’s ever counted down the days until school gets out, and Jaime Kim’s jubilant, nostalgia-soaked illustrations leave little doubt that summer is indeed a time unlike any other.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536239690
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	02/13/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	16 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

My life as a writer might have started at age thirteen, reading historical novels. I remember thinking how neat that would be to tell stories of the past, to be there in my imagination. The first story I remember writing was about a contemporary kid taking a bath. He pulled the plug and went down the drain. I can’t remember if that was the beginning or the ending.

After college, I wore black turtleneck sweaters and asked what the meaning of a flower was and thought that would make me a writer. I owned a typewriter. In those days the closest I got was a job as an advertising copywriter. I was writing and being paid for it. After ten years of that, I became an elementary-school teacher, thinking I had the summers to write. But it turned out that with three children, trips, backyard chickens, dogs, a house, and a garden, the summers just flew by.

After I retired from teaching, I finally began to write. And I submitted what I wrote. And I got rejection after rejection. So I went back to school, to a course at the University of Washington — Writing for Children. And after all those years of assigning homework to fourth, fifth, and sixth graders, it seems only fitting that my book about Halloween came out of a homework assignment.

No doubt growing up in Ohio, where autumn bursts with color and bright leaves drifted to the ground, and going to college at the University of North Carolina, where the fall colors were intense and lasted a long time, laid a foundation for the idea of my book. But more powerful were the memories of the excitement my own kids and my students had weeks before Halloween, talking about costume ideas, and then going out on that one very special night to rule the streets, looking for candy—and the word spreading faster than light of where the full-size candy bars were.

Three Things You Might Not Know About Me:

1. I was a Sugar Plum Fairy in a water ballet, a production of the UNC swim team.
2. I lasted one day as a door-to-door salesman at a time when I really needed a job.
3. From age six on, my cousin Bill and I were going to own a Montana horse ranch until years later I realized I was a little scared of horses—they are beautiful, but so big!

Editorial Reviews

Summer's smells, sounds, rhythms, and rituals unspool luxuriantly in this tribute to the season...Looking at these fantastic freeze-frames of fun, young readers see their desire to halt time during summer months fulfilled. Hearing lush phrases that capture summer's ethos ("daylight pushes back bedtimes, and crickets crick-crick in the evening air"), they can almost smell freshly mown lawns and taste campfire s'mores. A perennial read that radiates summer's heady glee.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

The language is stunning in its descriptiveness...and Kim’s artwork is steeped in sunshine. The overall effect is a celebration of playing outdoors in front yards with bare feet on those special, cherished days that “stretch out like a slow yawn.”
—Booklist Online

With this sunny celebration of the season, readers will find themselves eagerly anticipating June...Buoyant and infused with energy, these picturesque images call to mind an idyllic time and place without electronics or screens and where kids are free to roam with minimal supervision.
—School Library Journal

The smells, sounds, sights, and activities of summer are presented in lyrical text and cheery acrylic illustrations...The activities the boy enjoys, including selling lemonade, marching in the fourth of July parade, and camping at the lake, will have young children thinking about their own anticipated summer pastimes.
—Literacy Daily

From lemonade stands to family vacations, this is the perfect ode to the joys of summer.
—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

From the Publisher

03/01/2017
PreS-Gr 2—With this sunny celebration of the season, readers will find themselves eagerly anticipating June. Brenner and Kim have created a nostalgia-inducing suburban setting whose cheerful residents are treated to an endless stream of fireworks, games of hide-and-seek, Fourth of July parades, and trips to the lake. As in his previous titles (And Then Comes Halloween; And Then Comes Christmas), Brenner relies on a "Then…when" structure ("When the days stretch out like a slow yawn,/and leaves and grasses sparkle with dew/…. Then throw on flip-flops and breathe the sweet air") for another ode to a beloved time of the year. Featuring evocative, concrete images—"bugs as big as thumbs bang against windows"—the lyrical verse captures all the exuberance and simplicity of a childhood summer. Kim's illustrations, rendered in acrylic paint with digital tools, depict a rosy-cheeked, diverse array of children as they gleefully sell lemonade, cycle down the street, and indulge in ice cream. Buoyant and infused with energy, these picturesque images call to mind an idyllic time and place without electronics or screens and where kids are free to roam with minimal supervision. VERDICT An enchanting purchase for most library collections, especially those seeking additional seasonal materials.—Mahnaz Dar, School Library Journal

School Library Journal

★ 2017-03-06
Summer's smells, sounds, rhythms, and rituals unspool luxuriantly in this tribute to the season when "days stretch out like a slow yawn," when "bumblebees bumble," and "every day is like a Saturday."An elementary school-age boy with light-brown skin and a shock of dark hair giddily greets summer's markers: the final day of class, a lemonade stand, neighborhood hide-and-seek, July 4th parade and fireworks, camping and cooling off at a lake. He relishes summer's free-wheeling ease alongside a swirling pack of friends, a group of children with delightfully ambiguous skin tones—tan, taupe, medium brown, dark brown—but all scarlet-cheeked from sunny afternoons. In gleeful acrylic illustrations, their eyes crinkle and pop with joy, their arms fly skyward, their legs extend midstride. These exuberant motions and feelings, uncomplicated but deeply understood by children, appear atop soft summer scenes in gauzy greens and cotton whites. Looking at these fantastic freeze-frames of fun, young readers see their desire to halt time during summer months fulfilled. Hearing lush phrases that capture summer's ethos ("daylight pushes back bedtimes, and crickets crick-crick in the evening air"), they can almost smell freshly mown lawns and taste campfire s'mores. A perennial read that radiates summer's heady glee. (Picture book. 2-6)

Kirkus Reviews