Celebrate High Summer! And Then Comes Summer by Tom Brenner

When the days stretch like a slow yawn,

And leaves and grasses sparkle with dew....

When schools everywhere are finally out and the solstice has just passed, when the flowers and trees are still fresh and flourishing, when it's hot enough for swimming but not yet too hot for a ball game, when the outside beckons with bright, breezy mornings and the approaching twilight promises the tinkly truck and popsicles and ice cream cones on the porch steps--those are the days kids yearn for and grownups recall with nostalgia.

Tom Brenner's And Then Comes Summer(Candlewick Press, 2017) captures the rapture of childhood's best days in lyrical language.

When daylight pushes back bedtimes,

And crickets click crick in the evening air,

Then play hide-and-seek until darkness wins.

Summer memories are sweet--parades with friends on the floats hung with bunting, picnics and swims at the lake, bike rides where pedaling fast keeps everyone cool--until they stop, lemonade stands with cups that are drained thirstily, the scent of new-mown grass and melting s'mores.... It's all there like an old home movie. What's not to love about high summer?

Brenner's joyous recounting of those days we wish would never end will make anyone long for summertime, and artist Jaime Kim manages to portray the spirit of summer with pages filled with comic acrylic illustrations that record many of those memorable scenes. Says Kirkus in their starred review, "Summer's smells, sounds, rhythms, and rituals--fantastic freeze-frames of fun--unspool luxuriantly in this tribute to the season."

At Last! Honey by David Ezra Stein

Bear has just awakened from his long winter's nap.

It was his second year!

"I'm back!"

And he's really, really hungry. The first thing he wants to eat is honey! Who could forget that!

Warm! Sweet! Sparkling with sunlight!

And he remembers right where to find it. Bear heads for the hollow in the honey tree and pokes his snout right into the hole.

OUCH!

Bees don't like to be bothered!

It's not time for honey!

Bear runs for the stream and sticks his aching nose in the clear, cold water. He notices the waterfall splashing and rests for a moment on the new green grass, watching the little clouds floating above across the sky.

In a few days he notices that some of the green bushes have berries ripening. Bear comes back every day to fill his tummy with the sweet, juicy berries. Yum! Summer is beautiful and summer is delicious.

What is so rare as a day in June And yet, there is something else that Bear can't quite forget.

But then one day he hears something, a buzz-buzz that grows louder as he gets nearer to that special tree.

It was time for honey.

And it was just as delicious as he remembered. But as the Bard said, Summer's lease hath all too short a stay. And as signs of fall begin to appear, Bear knows that he will have happy summer memories and that there will be honey again next year.

David Ezra Stein's Honey (Nancy Paulsen Books/Random House, 2018) is a poignant celebration of the joys of spring and summer, a sweet salute to the season that reminds us that summer's bounty is a renewing joy, one that both people and bears await each year. After his long sleep Bear gets to appreciate the renewal of his world and its pleasures, simply described in author David Ezra Stein's spare but lyrical prose narrative that reaffirms the wisdom that there is a time for everything and everything worth waiting for comes in its own good time.

Artist Stein uses modest-sized illustrations, with squiggly lines and watercolors loosely applied in a faux naif style that fits Bear's simple thoughts in a soft homage to the season that affirms that good things are worth waiting for. As School Library Journal notes, "Stein's pen-and-watercolor illustrations are suffused with loose, childlike exuberance, while their relatively small scale (each page is bordered with ample white space) invites a sense of intimacy."

Changes, Changes! Goodbye, Summer, Hello, Autumn by Kenard Pak

Hello, chipmunks. Hello, beavers!

Hello! We have no time to play.

We are making cozy dens and nests.

It will be cold soon.

A girl in a bright scarf sets out from her doorstep. She walks through the woods, along a creek. The breeze is light and warm, but everything she sees--the trees, butterflies and foxes, blue jays--seem to be getting ready for something to happen. Even the few bright flowers know something is changing.

We are leaning into the sun, enjoying the last summer rays.

Some of us are late bloomers. We make the end of the summer more colorful.

As the girl moves out of the woods and into the town, she sees the storekeepers rolling up awnings, and passersby hurrying along as she hears a distant rumble of thunder. She greets the sudden whipping of the wind, and the wind answers, too.

Hello! I love to whoosh drizzle and leaves through the misty streets.

Back toward home the girl goes, noticing that the trees are indeed changing colors, the air is growing chill, and the persimmon-colored sun is setting earlier than before.

The season is changing before her eyes as she heads back homeward for a sweater, and it is truly time to say hello to autumn, in Kenard Pak's Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn (Henry Holt and Company, 2016). With his keen observations of the changing seasons and beautifully executed expressionistic watercolor illustrations, Pak uses the theme of the nature walk, seeking signs of fall, from insects to mammals, sunshine to chilly rain, and golden afternoon to early nightfall. This is a fine book for early childhood classes studying the cycle of the seasons, especially those planning to head out soon for their own "signs of fall" walk. Says School Library Journal, "A gentle, gorgeous welcome to summer's end and fall's beginning, perfect for storytime or one-on-one reading."