SUMMER'S VACATION
written by Lynn Plourde, illustrated by Jim Sollers
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

And so Summer lugs
her sprinkling can,
day after day,
as fast as she can.

And slowly, so slowly—
there’s a greenish glow.
The animals stir.
The rivers flow.

About the Book

Summer’s Vacation is the final book in Lynn Plourde’s and Greg Couch’s seasonal series which began with Wild Child. The child Summer is so busy on her vacation making sand castles, picking berries, and camping out, that she forgets to do her chores, in spite of repeated warnings from her parents, Mother Earth and Father Time. Without watering, the land turns brown until Summer grabs her sprinkling can and makes things right. Then she paints a rainbow to welcome her sister Autumn—bringing the four books full circle.

Reviews

Kirkus . . . Mixed-media acrylic-and-pencil illustrations dominated by brilliant, sunshine yellows burst from the page, beautifully blending with the mirthful, rollicking rhyme. A dazzling completion to this duo’s wonderful series about the seasons.

Booklist . . . As in her title Winter Waits (2000), Plourde delivers her message about responsibility gently, but firmly. The bouncy rhyming text is matched with layered, bright yellow and green full-page artwork that shows a jubilant Summer playing with abandon on the beach, turning somersaults, and splashing in a waterfall. Teachers may want to use the characters of Summer, Mother Earth, and Father Time to introduce metaphor and personification to elementary students.

Publisher's Weekly . . . Inventive language energizes the rhyming text, and Couch's shimmering paintings, in acrylic and colored pencil, evoke the hazy, lazy days of childhood.

Maine Sunday Telegram . . . As in the earlier books in this seasonal series, Couch's illustrations are magical. Here, Father Time is portrayed as a starry clock and Mother Earth as a being arising from the mountains and hills. As always, Plourde's language sparkles with interesting sounds and rhythms.

School Library Journal . . . Plourde and Couch's quartet of picture books personifying the seasons comes full circle with this exuberant celebration of summer. Rendered in acrylic paint and colored pencils on museum board, the illustrations glow with the shimmering heat of a sultry day and the coolness of a summer's evening. The yellows, greens, and blues match the energetic tone of the rhyming verses. This title continues the New Age approach evident in this team's other season books: Mother Earth is camouflaged as part of the topography and Summer's short golden hair looks like sun rays around her head. Children familiar with the earlier titles will welcome Summer and her infectious love of warm, carefree days.

Learning Activities

· The Lynn Plourde and Greg Couch books which include Wild Child, Winter Waits, Spring’s Sprung, and Summer’s Vacation have been called a “cycle.” Why do you think they are called that? Who appears at the end of the summer book? Which season do you enjoy the most? Which of the four season books is your favorite? Why? What season is your birthday in? Which season book do your classmates enjoy the most? Do a survey and compare your classmate’s favorite season book with their favorite seasons and the season of their birth dates. Do you see a relationship between any of these?

· Each main child character in each of the season books has a problem (e.g. Autumn, the wild child, doesn’t want to go to bed). What is Summer’s problem in Summer’s Vacation? How does her problem get solved at the end of the book? Can you think of a different problem that a Summer child might have had (e.g. she’s too hot, gets too many bug bites) and how she might have solved that new problem.

· This book in the season series is different because for the first time BOTH parents—Mother Earth and Father Time—appear throughout the same book. Actually Autumn, Winter, the three Spring sisters, and Summer are all brothers and sisters and have the same parents. But since they appear during different seasons, they are not able to play together like other brothers and sisters. At an author visit to a school one time, a young boy suggested to Lynn Plourde that if the kids’ father is Father Time, then he should just stop time for a day so all the kids could play together. What a great suggestion! Try to write and illustrate a story or scene in which all of the four season’s brothers and sisters and their parents spend a day together. What will they do? Will they have a problem to solve? Will they get along or not? Will they be shy around each other? Will they want their special day to become a yearly reunion? Be creative and have fun making up such a “season combination” story/scene.

· Either draw illustrations of one of your favorite summer vacations or make a scrapbook of that vacation using real photos from the vacation. You might want to make your illustrations or photos look like a travel brochure or ad for your summer vacation experience so that others would be tempted to take the same vacation, at the same place, doing the same activities that you did.

Story Behind the Story

The Plourde family on a visit to Story Land in NH during the early 1960's.

When Summer’s Vacation was completed, part of me was excited and proud, but another part of me was sad. I hated to see the end of the season series which began with the publication of Wild Child in 1999. I remember that when I first saw Greg Couch’s illustrations for the autumn book, I cried at the beauty of his paintings and was honored to have them bring my words to life in a way that was beyond anything I could have ever imagined. And so with the publication of Summer’s Vacation, I was sad to know that there were no more seasons to illustrate and the collaboration with Greg Couch was over. I wish it could go on forever because Greg’s illustrations are so vibrant, magical, and beautiful. When it came time to turn in my dedication for Summer’s Vacation, there was only one choice. I had to dedicate the book to Greg Couch, as small way to honor him and say thanks for all his wonderful work on our journey through the seasons.

Lynn during a 2002 summer visit to Reid State Park.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always enjoyed summer vacations with wonderful experiences such as going to the Skowhegan State Fair; picking, snipping, and canning batches of green beans from our garden; renting a camp on a lake for a week each summer; riding go-carts in our front yard; going to the Skowhegan Drive-in and watching movies until all us kids fell asleep in the back of the station wagon during the second movie. Some summers we’d take family trips to special places like Story Land in Glen, New Hampshire.

Even as an adult, I still enjoy summer vacations. Since I’ve always worked as an educator, I still look forward to the long summer break from the school year hustle-bustle. During the summer I find time to read lots of books, have BBQ’s with family and friends, try to keep the weeds from overtaking our vegetable and flower gardens, and enjoy the summer delicacies of fresh garden peas, corn-on-the-cob, and strawberry shortcake,. One of my family’s favorite summer jaunts is to visit Reid State Park in Georgetown, Maine, where we toss a Frisbee, pack a picnic lunch and enjoy sandy sandwiches, go wading in the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean, watch boats and birds with binoculars, and just sit and soak up the salt air. We always come home feeling rejuvenated. Many of my summer experiences here in Maine helped to inspire the activities that Summer enjoys during Summer’s Vacation.