Review by Booklist Review
Portis' engaging offering is a lyrical guessing-game tribute to summer and a few of its unique features. The appealing format is arranged in three- to five-line riddles placed on a square of solid color on the right-hand page--for example, "I scribble on the walk in glistening ink. Read all about my nighttime travels." Readers are invited to guess which aspect of summer is the correct answer. When the page is turned, the solution appears in hand-stamped text: "says snail." The resolution is accompanied by an illustration of the tan-and-rust-colored gastropod on a concrete sidewalk, with dotted lines revealing its loopy trail. The author's attractive illustrations were created using charcoal, leaf prints, and brush and ink; color was then added digitally. Words attributed to the season include tadpole, sunlight, cloud, inchworm, and thunder. From morning through night, the circular tale shows one brown-skinned girl experiencing multiple sights, sounds, and adventures on a warm day spent enjoying nature.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Giving voice to wonders great and small, Portis (Hey, Water!) crafts short poems about natural things and events encountered over the course of a summer day: a tadpole, thunder, an inchworm, mud. Each voice poses a provocative, lyrical riddle answered through the turn of a page: "Morning lays me on your pillow,/ an invitation, square and warm./ Come out and play!" An envelope? No. The page turn reveals a patch of sunlight, dense with shadows of leaves and branches, falling across a sleeping child's dark braid. Textures abound: "I'm a candy sucked smooth/ in the river's mouth./ Let me sweeten your pocket" reveals a piebald pebble. A veined leaf duplicates a tree's silhouette, fuzzy tendrils trail from a passing cloud, and starry night falls, "a black coat/ slipped around/ Earth's shoulders." The power of Portis's poems, and the surprise each page turn allows, lets readers experience familiar moments with awakened senses, offering them nothing less than a new world filled with fresh experiences. Ages 3--7. Agent: Deborah Warren, East/West Literary. (Apr.)
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Review by Horn Book Review
In this exuberant celebration of a summer day, readers engage with compelling page-turns to solve simple nature riddles. "Morning lays me on your pillow," the book opens, "square and warm. Come out and play!" Turn the page to see the source of that invitation, and thus the answer to the riddle, on the verso: a waking girl is greeted by a patch of morning light on her pillow, and the text reveals the speaker to be sunlight. The recto of each spread features one of these tantalizing invitations from a different element in nature; the verso of the next spread reveals who (snail, tadpole) or what (pebble, rain) is speaking. Portis (Wait, rev. 7/15; Hey, Water!, rev. 3/19) offers viewers a sensory experience; we hear a stream and a cricket, feel an inchworm on our finger, splash in the rain, and see lightning. Toes "taste" mud; a pebble is likened to "a candy sucked smooth in the river's mouth." The palette features the earth tones of nature with visually distinctive hand-stamped lettering. The use of leaf prints in the art grounds the story in the earth it celebrates. The story ends, naturally, with the shadows of night ("a black coat slipped around Earth's shoulders" is but one example of the book's vivid figurative language) and thrumming crickets. A playful, thoroughly captivating guessing game for young listeners. Julie Danielson May/June 2020 p.107(c) Copyright 2020. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In a series of nature riddles that beg to be read aloud, a child finds joy and wonder in the great outdoors. Prolific author and illustrator Portis leads readers through a summer day spent outside. Through gentle, brain-teasing verse, aspects of the natural world introduce themselves to the story's only human character, who sports dark pigtails and a warm brown complexion. As readers follow along, they too are treated to a delightful guessing game: Based on the poetically brief clues, what everyday plant, animal, or weather pattern is calling out to be discovered by the protagonist? For example: "I'm a mountain that moves. Look, I come to you," one clue begins. With the turn of the page, the natural element's identity is revealed with the simple completion of the sentence: "says cloud," here accompanied by a breezy, textured illustration of an overcast sky. Because the answer to each riddle is declared on the subsequent spread, readers have a chance to brainstorm as they approach each intimation. Though this formula carries throughout the text, the book remains straightforward and engaging thanks to Portis' fresh take on familiar outdoor sights. Very young children will love reading along with adults, who can help them make sense of the sometimes-abstract hints; older kids will have fun making guesses on their own. This sweet celebration of summertime, nature, and youthful curiosity is a worthy addition to school and public libraries and personal collections alike. Simple, poetic, and fun. (Picture book. 4-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
