The book is board book sized, a square of about 6x6 inches. The cover’s bright yellow background gives way to sharp blue and rich green in the interior. Each page features a different aspect of summer and a different paper creation. Simple sentences “The summer day is long and warm,” are joined by small captions on the different items, drawn in Carter’s simple, minimalist style. Summer items include cherries, a pileated woodpecker, ladybug, June beetle, vegetable garden, pansies and katydid, a small pond with painted turtle, Western fence lizard, kingfisher, and golden trout, and a final spread that returns to the farmhouse and features an apple tree.
Each spread has one or two items; the pond has a small pop-up of wild columbine flowers and a gray stone flap that, when lifted down, pops up the heads of the two chipmunks who can be found on each page. The garden lifts a spray of tomatoes above the page and coils a cucumber vine across the spread, nearly hiding the clever little chipmunks.
I would happily add this to my seasonal Storytime Kit except for a few small problems on the final page. Namely, the apple tree. Apples don’t ripen until fall. There are also pumpkins in the field, another fall harvest item. There’s a cornfield as well, but no corn, so it’s not looking forward to autumn, and the final text clearly says it’s summer, “The earth is rich when summer is here.”
Verdict: I’m not sure how such a major error was passed, but especially for our area, where fall apple picking is a big deal, it’s not something I can overlook. Although the kids probably would enjoy pointing out the error… I suppose there might be some place where apples ripen in the summer, but it doesn’t fit with any of the other wildlife or plants in the book.
ISBN: 9781419728327; Published 2018 by Abrams Appleseed; Review copy provided by publisher
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