Fireworks

Writing in limpid prose and illustrating in sunny, softly stroked multimedia spreads, previous collaborators Burgess and Chien (The Bear and the Moon) follow two East Asian--cued children through a hot city Fourth of July. "In the summer, the sun rises/ between buildings on our block/ to greet us at breakfast," where one feeds a mouthful to the other as a smiling, white-haired caretaker watches from the kitchen. When the kids head out around noon, it's already so warm that a leaky hydrant means "we do what all kids do" and leap into the water: "Whoop Weee Woohoo!" After a bodega stop, they see a park sax player blowing "brassy blasts/ that make us onlookers dance." And that night, the two climb a fire escape to a roof for fireworks, waiting until brilliant light showers the skies: "A comet streaking across the sky BURSTS into a flower of fire (THE FIRST!)." In this joyous seasonal idyll, the creators capture with onomatopoeic eloquence the day's sensations, and establish the children's day as free and expansive, with plenty of time to savor sounds, sights, and "summer on our skin." Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4--8. (May)

Two children cut loose on the Fourth of July. As the book opens, the brown-skinned, dark-haired youngsters explain that "in the summer, the sun rises between buildings on our block to greet us at breakfast and it beats warmer and brighter when we venture out across steamy city sidewalks." At noon, relief arrives as the children gleefully run through the water sprayed by a fire hydrant. On their way to a local bodega, they wind their way through a park before devouring ruby-red pieces of watermelon. Words dance across the page ("Shooka-shooka shooka-shooka") as the kids move to the sounds of salsa music. Back at home, Grandma cooks dinner for the children, and as night falls, the youngsters scale a "rickety ladder" to the rooftop, where they wait until…"POP!" Fireworks rain down in a literal explosion of colors and words cascading over silhouetted images of the kids. Burgess' succinct, sensory-rich, onomatopoeia-laden text beats with an infectious rhythm, while Chien's impressionistic mixed-media artwork sets the mood beautifully on each spread, from a hazy scene where people seem to fade into the background amid the heat to the dazzling depictions of fireworks, followed by a cozy montage of Grandma getting the kids ready for bed. Landmarks indicate that the tale is set in New York City; this is an immersive tribute to the unique pleasures of an urban Fourth of July. A radiant celebration of all things summer.(Picture book. 4-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.