Natsumi's Song of Summer

by Robert Paul Weston, Misa Saburi (Illustrator)

Overview

This sweet and gentle picture book celebrates summer in Japan, as one little girl shares her love for bugs with her cousin who is visiting from America.

Two young cousins who are separated by language, continent and culture meet for the first time when Jill's family travels from America to Japan to stay with Natsumi's family during the summer holidays. Natsumi's nervousness about meeting her cousin from across the sea quickly disappears when she discovers that her cousin is a lot like her: they both love summertime's hot sandy beaches, cool refreshing watermelon, festivals and fireworks. Then Jill asks Natsumi about the strange buzzing sound that comes from the nearby trees, and Natsumi is nervous once again. What if Jill is frightened of Natsumi's cherished cicadas, the insects that sing the music of summertime?

This is a tender, evocative story that celebrates the special pleasures of summertime and of reunions with faraway family and friends.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735265417
Publisher:	Tundra
Publication date:	05/12/2020
Pages:	44
Sales rank:	297,266
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

ROBERT PAUL WESTON was born in Dover, England, but did most of his growing up in the small town of Georgetown, Ontario. Since then, he's also spent time living in the US, Japan, Switzerland and the UK. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and has been nominated for the Journey Prize and the Fountain Award for Speculative Fiction. He has written several novels for young readers, including Zorgamazoo, Dust City and Blues for Zoey, and Sakura's Cherry Blossoms. Natsumi's Song of Summer is his second picture book. He currently lives in London, England.

MISA SABURI was born in Sleepy Hollow, New York, and raised in Tokyo, Japan, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is the illustrator of a series of board books — Rapunzel, Snow White and Cinderella — as well as Bearnard's Book and Monster Trucks. As well, she is the illustrator of Sakura's Cherry Blossoms.

Editorial Reviews

03/30/2020

Weston writes his tale in elegant tanka, a form defined in his author’s note—it’s a haiku-like poem with two additional lines of seven syllables each. Natsumi’s summer pleasures include “sun, the heat, the cool bursts/ of plum rain, heavy and sweet.” This summer, her cousin Jill, whom she has never met, comes to Japan to share in those enjoyments. They become fast friends, but Natsumi hesitates before showing Jill the cicadas whose calls fill the air: “Insects frightened some people./ What if Jill was frightened, too?” In Saburi’s digital art, the two cousins are wide-eyed, doll-like figures; Jill, with dark brown skin and black hair, peers into the tree branches as pink-skinned Natsumi worries. Fortunately, Jill loves the cicadas, and when she learns that the insects wait for years before emerging “to meet their friends,” she spots the parallel: “Just like us,” she tells Natsumi. Saburi’s thick black lines recall traditional Japanese woodblock prints, and she portrays the creatures and summer flowers that Natsumi treasures in rich detail. In the collaborators’ (Sakura’s Cherry Blossoms) handling, Natsumi’s cross-cultural friendship with Jill centers on a shared love of natural life and models openness to new experiences. Ages 3–7. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Named one of Kirkus Reviews’ hottest summer reads
One of CCBC’s Best Books for Kids and Teens Fall 2020
A 2021 Bank Street Book of the Year

PRAISE FOR Natsumi's Song of Summer:

"Immersive illustrations and rich poetry urge young readers to slow down and appreciate nature." —STARRED REVIEW, Kirkus Reviews

“The vitality of Jill and Natsumi bubbles through on every page.” —CM Reviews

"A pleasant choice for a summer or insect-themed storytime." —Booklist

“Natsumi’s cross-cultural friendship with Jill centers on a shared love of natural life and models openness to new experiences.” —Publisher's Weekly

From the Publisher

★ 2020-03-15
Poetry and art harmoniously evoke the simplicity of a summer friendship set in Japan.

Natsumi, a young peach-skinned girl with straight, dark hair, was born in lotus season. Her name means “the sea in summer,” and summer seems to run through her veins. She loves the heat, the outdoor activities, “the cool bursts / of plum rain, heavy and sweet.” Eye-catching illustrations, done in a seasonal palette of pinks, greens, blues, and purples, capture the flora and fauna of these few months—especially the cicadas. Natsumi is intrigued by these fleeting flyers and seeks them out when they arrive. On her birthday, her cousin Jill, a girl with brown skin and curly hair, comes on a plane to visit, and Natsumi worries whether they will be friends, whether Jill will like Natsumi’s world. Long stalks of bamboo and swaying paper lanterns intersect the page here to denote Natsumi’s anxiety. But in fact, Jill and Natsumi fit together like sun and summer, eating watermelon on the beach; dancing, kimono-clad, in a festival; and watching fireworks. But will Jill be frightened by the unfamiliar, buzzing cicadas? Their friendship unfolds page by page as they build a summer of memories together. Weston tells this sweet story in a sequence of tanka, a traditional Japanese poetic form that builds on haiku with an extra couplet. Weston explains the form in the backmatter and provides information about the cicada’s significance in Japanese culture.

Immersive illustrations and rich poetry urge young readers to slow down and appreciate nature. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews