One Hot Summer Day
© Nina Crews 1995 Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins Publishers ISBN: 9780688133931; ISBN10: 0688133932
About One Hot Summer Day
It is summer and it is HOT. Dogs pant. Women carry umbrellas for the shade. But the running, dancing narrator is busy. Drawing. Teasing her shadow. Eating Popsicles.
Here is a perfect book for all seasons: If you are cold, it will warm you, and if you are hot–well, the sky is darkening, and the big drops are ready to fall. Nina Crews makes a stunning debut with a book bursting with emotion, truth, and beauty.
Reviews
Her black hair carefully braided and beaded, an effervescent city child dances through a hot summer day until a thunderstorm brings welcome relief. Executed in collages made from color photographs, the illustrations are an intriguing combination of realistic images imaginatively redefined in unexpected juxtaposition – as in the multilayered interpretation of four simple lines: "Dogs pant. / Hydrants are open. / Women carry umbrellas / for the shade." In this context, the camera is a much a painter's tool as palette and brush, manipulating reality to suggest texture, sensations, and emotions. A wonderful concept book, grounded in ordinary events yet touched with magic, that will strike a familiar chord with preschool audiences while enlarging their perceptions. An auspicious debut! Horn Book July/August 1995