|
When the Fireflies Come is a wonderful marriage of text and illustrations. In a bright cartoon style, children
celebrate the end of summer with classic summer activities that will bring fond memories to readers of all ages.
Jonathan London's text brings for the best of summer smells, sights and sounds. "The screen doors slam. Slam
- bang. Slam - bang. Outside, the smell of summer. The smell of fresh-picked corn, barbecued hot dogs
and burgers in the air. The tinkle of ice in tall iced - tea glasses." The text takes us through a summer day
and into a summer night with images like baseball and ice cream to fireflies and moonlit grass. According to a Kirkus
Review, "In image-rich, sometimes impressionistic prose, the prolific London captures sights and sounds of summer afternoons"
(Kirkus Reviews, 2003).
The illustrations are bright, full, and round. Curvy lines are used throughout the background of the book - a hilly
landscape whose sky changes from afternoon sunlight to a brilliant setting sun to a plum and midnight blue sky speckled with
yellow fireflies. This picture storybook has a very circular feel, taking the reader through an entire summer day.
Each illustrated spread has a very circular feel of its own, arching like a rainbow in the way the drawings are laid out on
the page. The illustrations flow from one page to the next - both text and pictures brimming with summer.
London, Jonathan. When the Fireflies Come. Illus. by Terry Widener. New York: Dutton Children's
Books - Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, 2003. ISBN: 0525454047.
|
