Summer Stinks — Marty Kelley

PreS-Gr 1-This is a rhyming litany of summertime woes for pessimistic readers or, according to the title page, An alphabetical lexicon for the estivally dispirited. The text ranges from Ants that ate my whole snack and the Bug that crawled down my back to the Yacht that just sank in the lake and the Zapper I touched by mistake. The last spread depicts a boy looking through the window of an empty classroom, with text that reads, Twenty-six reasons this season's a bummer;/At least I can say there's no school in the summer. Each letter appears in upper- and lowercase with a single sentence beneath a framed watercolor illustration. The entire frame overlays a black-and-white background with a miniature pattern that picks up the theme of the painting. For example, tiny outline drawings of pails and shovels are the background for C is for Castles the tide washed away. The bold, cartoonlike illustrations are reminiscent of Tedd Arnold's work. An additional purchase.-DeAnn Tabuchi, San Anselmo Public Library, CA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.