Summertime Waltz

A poetic interpretation of the summer evenings of childhood

Lovely the lateness
in summertime darkening.
Dinner is over.
The grownups are talking.

Seizing their moment, the children steal away from the dinner table to play out of doors, until its too dark to see the ball and their mothers call them home.

Finely wrought oil paintings, beguiling and dreamlike in their detail, give a free-spirited interpretation of the poem. Together, words and pictures evoke the lush scents, sounds, and feel of the full lingering days of summer, when outside and inside is lost in the doorways.

Awards

School Library Journal Best Books of the Year

Reviews

"Paynes evocative three-stanza poem, an ode to childhoods long summer days, launches Swiatkowskas flight of fancy. The artist takes readers on an internal journey of the mind of a child. The lovely turns of phrase and whimsical yet linked images will invite readers back again and again." -- Starred, Publishers Weekly

"Swiatkowska works with color, texture, and magic...wonderful things happen to the text, too. Dreamily evocative, down to its last no one is leaving / then everyones gone. A rich confection, beautifully delivered." -- Starred, Kirkus Reviews

"The waltz of a summer evening dances across these pages. Gorgeous." -- Starred, School Library Journal

"In slow, waltzing rhythms that echo fading summer dusk, the lines offer more sensory impressions of summer. Successive spreads match single, consecutive lines of the poem with fantastical, mixed-media illustrations. Intriguing, lovely assemblage of poetry, creative typefaces, and illustration." – Booklist

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About the Author

Nina Payne, lived in Amherst, Massachusetts, and was a poet and artist.

About the Illustrator

Gabi Swiatkowska has illustrated several acclaimed picture books, including My Name Is Yoon by Helen Recorvits, for which she received the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award. She lives in France.