Summer Sun Risin' - Softcover

W. Nikola-Lisa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1584302526 ISBN 13: 9781584302520

Publisher: Lee & Low Books, 2005

Synopsis

From sunrise to sunset, an African American boy spends an activity-filled summer day helping his family on their farm. Feeding animals, mowing hay, picking vegetables, and eating freshly caught fish fill the hours. Set in Texas in the 1950s, Summer Sun Risin’ is Parenting Reading Magic Award winner W. Nikola-Lisa’s tribute to childhood, farm life, and family togetherness. Don Tate’s sun-drenched paintings depict the family’s daily activities and trace the sun as it travels across the sky.

About this title

About the Author:

W. Nikola-Lisa is the author of numerous award-winning children's books, among them Bein' with You This Way, Summer Sun Risin', and My Teacher Can Teach Anyone!, all published by LEE & LOW BOOKS (see full list to the right). A professor of education at National-Louis University in Evanston, Illinois, Nikola-Lisa lives in Chicago with his wife. To find out more about W. Nikola-Lisa, visit his Web site: nikolabooks.com

Don Tate is the illustrator of LEE & LOW's SUMMER SUN RISIN' (Spring 2002) and SAY HEY! A SONG OF WILLIE MAYS (Hyperion Jump at the Sun, 2000). His work has also appeared in children's magazines, on greeting cards, and in newspapers, and he currently works as a visual journalist/ illustrator for the Austin American Statesman. A native of Des Moines, Iowa, Tate now lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and their children. To find out more about Don Tate, visit www.dontate.com

From Publishers Weekly:

An African-American boy and his parents tend their farm while marking the transit of the ever-changing sun in this plainspoken paean to agricultural life. Tate's (Say Hey: A Song of Willie Mays) stylized full-bleed paintings, shown to advantage in the book's horizontal (10" 8") format, exaggerate the expansiveness of the plains by rendering the horizon as a gentle but unmistakable arc. It's as if the farm were hugging the edge of a globe, the earth as round to the narrator's eye as the constantly visible sun. The characters' highly sculpted faces suggest the contours of the land, and their expressions radiate confidence and satisfaction. While the tweaked perspectives occasionally can be unsettling (in a view of the boy at breakfast, the dishes seem to slide straight down the surface of the tabletop), the pictures will immediately engage readers. Short verses comment on farm activities and the relative position of the sun. Adopting a laconic, rural voice, Nikola-Lisa (Bein' with You This Way) sometimes crosses the line into monotony. Still, he conjures up a compelling, comforting rhythm from the accumulation of small details: "Birds in the roost, kittens in the yarn, Cows linin' up down by the barn. Pa cracks the door, I swing it wide. Summer sun's shinin', floodin' inside." Ages 3-6.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lee & Low Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1584302526
• ISBN 13: 9781584302520
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Don Tate