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    Summer: Animals Share in a Poetic Tale of Kindness
    Unavailable
    Summer: Animals Share in a Poetic Tale of Kindness
    Unavailable
    Summer: Animals Share in a Poetic Tale of Kindness
    Ebook22 pages5 minutes

    Summer: Animals Share in a Poetic Tale of Kindness

    By Cao Wenxuan and Yu Rong

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Summer is a poetic, inspirational picture book about the power of kindness from two of China's most acclaimed creators—and children will discover a surprise as they turn the pages!

    During a hot summer day in the grasslands, a group of animals race to claim the single spot of shade—under one tiny leaf that clings to a branch. The animals fight until they are inspired by an act of love to offer shade to one another.

    Through lyrical text from Hans Christian Andersen Award winner Cao Wenxuan, the story comes alive with bright, delicate art from award-winning illustrator Yu Rong and provides a vivid introduction to animals. In the middle of the book, pages grow shorter and then longer to emphasize each selfless action and to remind children of the importance of sharing and being kind.

    An Imprint Book

    "An exquisitely calibrated fable." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

    "Children will return often to enjoy the interactive opportunities." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMay 7, 2019
    ISBN9781250261465
    Unavailable
    Summer: Animals Share in a Poetic Tale of Kindness
    Author

    Cao Wenxuan

    Cao Wenxuan grew up in rural China and is now a professor of Chinese literature and children’s literature. He is the author of several celebrated books for young readers, including the novel Bronze and Sunflower, which received three starred reviews. His fluid, poetic prose depicts honest, sometimes raw, and often melancholy moments of life. He has also received significant recognition for his academic research and teaching in the field of children’s literature, and he was the first Chinese author to win the Hans Christian Andersen Author Award. Cao Wenxuan is the author of Summer.

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    Reviews for Summer

    4/5

    8 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Love this one, which I believe was originally published in Chinese and then later translated into English.

      The story is pretty simple: it's a hot, hot day in summer and there's only one skinny tree with any shade, but there are a lot of hot animals who want that shade! They fight until they realize there's no point--that tree really doesn't give much shade at all. But then a man walks by holding a child's hand--and the animals notice that his shadow completely protects the child from the sun. One by one, the animals line up so that each one can offer a smaller animal some shade, even the elephant who gets no shade for himself...until a cloud finally comes by.

      In addition to the pretty illustrations, the book has some excellent design choices that make the book even more fun: each animal's text is a different color, the fonts are different sizes depending on how big or small, near or far an animal is, and the middle pages in which the animals line up start thin--about three inches wide--and get wider as each larger animal gets in line until we're back to the width of a full page.

      A lovely book with gentle lessons about kindness to others.
    • 4/5
      One hot summer's day, a group of animals quarrel with one another about who is entitled to the shade of the one tree in the area. When the smaller creatures, who had been evicted by the larger and more powerful elephant, see that the tree has no foliage, and can therefore offer no relief, they laugh at the elephant. But then all of the animals see a human father and child walking by, the child entirely in his parent's shadow. Inspired, each animal offers shade to a companion smaller than himself, until everyone but the elephant has some refuge from the hot sun. Fortunately for the elephant, a cloud happens by, offering him relief as well...Originally published in China in 2015, as 夏天, this picture-book meditation on the importance of sharing and mutual aid is from the pen of prolific children's author Cao Wenxuan, and features the artwork of illustrator Rong Yu. The design is quite interesting, featuring a section of pages, in the middle of the book, that are of different lengths. This section corresponds to the part of the story where the animals begin to offer shade to one another, from smallest to largest, and the length of the page reflects this, moving from narrowest to longest, as the story progresses. This kind of book design is similar to that in Cao Wenxuan's Feather, which also featured pages of different length, but here it feels as if the design is working with the story. The artwork itself is sweet, with cute animals characters, and a lovely color palette. My only word of criticism for the book is that although it appears to be set on the African savannah, it features animals from all over the world, that would not normally appear together. Leaving that aside - and as the book is more a meditation on the theme of sharing and helping others, I don't know that it really should be read as a naturalistic animal story - I recommend this one to picture-book readers looking for engaging and beautifully-illustrated summer stories, or tales about selfish vs. unselfish behavior.