When Summer Comes: Exploring Nature in Our Warmest Season

by Aimée M. Bissonette, Erin Hourigan (Illustrator)

Overview

Poetic children’s book celebrating nature and wildlife in the summer season.

Summer is the perfect season for families to embrace the outdoors. When Summer Comes celebrates playing and exploring in the wilderness during the summer months.

When summer comes,

and the sky soars blue above us,

and the days stretch long and warm before us,

some people head to ball games and outdoor markets.

Instead we gather our gear.

Binoculars.

Hiking poles.

Backpacks.

Butterfly nets.

Shovels and buckets for trips to the shore.

Summer’s the season when we explore.

This follow up to When Winter Comes is about the joy of being outdoors and discovering wildlife during the summer months.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632174352
Publisher:	Blue Star Press
Publication date:	04/25/2023
Series:	When Seasons Come
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,174,607
Product dimensions:	10.34(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.35(d)
Lexile:	820L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

AIMÉE M. BISSONETTE is the author of three picture books, North Woods Girl, Miss Colfax's Light, and Aim for the Skies: Jerrie Mock and Joan Merriam Smith's Race to Complete Amelia Earhart's Quest. North Woods Girl won the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award, Midwest Booksellers Choice Award, and Friends of American Writers Award. Miss Colfax's Light was named in ALA's 2017 Amelia Bloomer List and was a recipient of the 2017 International Literacy Association Children's Book Award for Primary Nonfiction.

ERIN HOURIGAN is an illustrator and author in Portland, Oregon. She grew up in Southern California, and studied illustration at Cal State Fullerton before moving to Oregon, where she learned to trade the waves for pine trees and rivers. She draws much of her inspiration from the world around her and loves spending time outdoors, whether it's on a hike or just playing with her dog, Scout.

Editorial Reviews

2023-02-25
A family lives it up come summer.

This adventurous Black family takes full advantage of the nice weather to explore the Pacific Northwest. Together they picnic on hills overlooking the shore, fly kites, and go to ball games and outdoor markets. They take camping trips in the mountains, where they hike and see wildflowers and mountain goats, pikas, and marmots, or in the desert, stargazing and watching bats catch mosquitoes. They hike in the forest, spying woodpeckers, black bears, elk, and deer. They explore tidal pools on the coast, count turtles on logs as they kayak in lakes, and bike to a swimming hole. The upbeat verse speaks to the simple pleasures of nature (“Because summer’s the season when we explore / the wild, bustling outdoor world”) and will invite many readers to follow suit. Hourigan’s appealing illustrations are full of natural colors and sights including urban green spaces like Seattle’s Gas Works Park as well as more remote wild locales, and the species mentioned (except for the bugs) can be spied in the artwork. With so few books centering families of color enjoying the great outdoors, this example of characters whose summertime activities range from butterfly collecting to swimming is welcome indeed. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A celebration of outdoor summer joys and togetherness. (Picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews

"A celebration of outdoor summer joys and togetherness. "—Kirkus Review

From the Publisher