Overview
Who needs a backyard when there are brownstone steps, double dutch, and freeze tag beneath the sizzling summer sun? The jingling bell of the ice cream truck mingles with laughter and sidewalk rhymes. Frosty lemonade from the corner store and tight cornrows beat the heat with style. There's nothing like summer in the city with friends, family, and a child's imagination for company.
Ruth Forman offers a poetic testament to childhood, language, and play, and Cbabi Bayoc's richly hued paintings bring the streets of South Philadelphia to vivid life.
Synopsis
Who needs a backyard when there are brownstone steps, double dutch, and freeze tag beneath the sizzling summer sun? The jingling bell of the ice cream truck mingles with laughter and sidewalk rhymes. Frosty lemonade from the corner store and tight cornrows beat the heat with style. There's nothing like summer in the city with friends, family, and a child's imagination for company.
Ruth Forman offers a poetic testament to childhood, language, and play, and Cbabi Bayoc's richly hued paintings bring the streets of South Philadelphia to vivid life.
Children's Literature
The joys of a South Philly summer are celebrated with a bouncy, rhythmic text and brilliantly colored, dynamic illustrations. Two bright-eyed African-American girls with cornrow hairdos announce that they have no backyard or front yard. What they do have is something better. They have black magic in brownstone steps, cool lemonade, black-eyed peas and "corn bread coolin on the stove." They have "double dutch n freeze tag n kickball n places to hide n seek." They have the ice cream man, the corner store, and fine brothers and sisters with "attitude." They do not mind not having backyards or front yards, because at night they can call out the moon with their black magic and brownstone steps. The exuberance of the children is aptly captured in the vividly colored, active pictures. Children race through the pages and convey emotions expressively as they delight in the joys of their neighborhood. A good choice for reading aloud.
Editorials
Children's Literature -
The joys of a South Philly summer are celebrated with a bouncy, rhythmic text and brilliantly colored, dynamic illustrations. Two bright-eyed African-American girls with cornrow hairdos announce that they have no backyard or front yard. What they do have is something better. They have black magic in brownstone steps, cool lemonade, black-eyed peas and "corn bread coolin on the stove." They have "double dutch n freeze tag n kickball n places to hide n seek." They have the ice cream man, the corner store, and fine brothers and sisters with "attitude." They do not mind not having backyards or front yards, because at night they can call out the moon with their black magic and brownstone steps. The exuberance of the children is aptly captured in the vividly colored, active pictures. Children race through the pages and convey emotions expressively as they delight in the joys of their neighborhood. A good choice for reading aloud.School Library Journal
Gr 1–3
Summer in the city in South Philly is packed with sense memories for the children who live there. "We don have no backyard frontyard neither. we got black magic n brownstone steps when the sun go down." But what these kids do have is special: "lemonade n black eye peas…n more to watch than tv"—street games, the ice-cream truck, dancing in the street, and relatives and friends. Life is full. And when the sun goes down, they "got to call out the moon." Forman's poetry is sweet and evocative of a blissful childhood filled with tastes and sights and sounds that seem idyllic. Bayoc's illustrations swirl with energy, movement, and color. The text curls and bounces on the early pages, adding rhythm to the playful scenes. This sweet reminiscence invites readers to recall the special things about their own summers—a great introduction to a September ("What did you do over the summer?") writing assignment. It could also be used as an introduction to writing with a sense of place or a memoir.
—Mary HazeltonCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.