When Summer Comes

Ekaterina Trukha is a prolific illustrator who also has When Spring Comes and When Autumn comes in this series, but has also done simple stories for the Indestructibles books for babies. Her brightly colored, simple shapes (this time in more vibrant summer hues) are engaging and easily recognizable. There is a page at the back of items to find in the story: a pitcher of lemonade, an owl, a radish, and a lady bug on every page!

I've been reading a lot of books to my grandson, who is four months old, and have noticed that many picture books are very large, and have too many words on each page for short attention spans. This is a smaller size (all the better to hold floppy baby and turn pages at the same time!), and has just the right amount of text for a quick read if necessary. It's perfect for pointing out objects on the page, even without the scavenger hunt at the end.

I still haven't taken a look at When Autumn Comes, but may have to hunt it down this fall, just to check out the color palette. Since most people prefer summer, this is a perfect book to pack a long with the strawberries on their way to the picnic along with Gray's Summer is Here, Yee's Summer Days and Nights, Pinke and Adhi's Summer Is, and Brenner and Kim's And Then Comes Summer.