FICTION

Pinny in Summer

by Joanne SCHWARTZ
illus. by Isabelle Malenfant. 32p. Groundwood. May 2016. Tr $16.95. ISBN 9781554987825.
COPY ISBN
PreS-Gr 2—On one very busy summer day, Pinny searches for and finds a wishing rock, meets friends, cloud watches, goes blueberry picking, feeds a seagull, bakes a cake, and hosts a party. Whew! While not everything goes according to plan (a storm ends the blueberry picking, and, not surprisingly, a seagull eats the cake), but Pinny finds the silver lining every time. Schwartz's plentiful text and advanced vocabulary make the title more suitable as a read-aloud. For the most part, each block of text is set opposite a full-page illustration. Using soft pastel and graphite, Malenfant's cartoon illustrations have a pleasing mixture of lightness and detail that greatly benefit the text.
VERDICT A Pollyanna named Pinny makes the best of her summer day. Despite the label on the book flap and the organizational structure (four short chapters), this is not an easy reader. An additional seasonal selection.
Reviewed by Catherine Callegari, Formerly at Gay-Kimball Library, Troy, NH
Pinny is having a perfect summer day: she finds a striped wishing stone, watches clouds, picks blueberries with two friends, and bakes a cake; her serenity is never upended, despite a brief rainstorm and a cake-snatching seagull. Though the four chapters are brief, they're not readily decodable for newly independent readers. Lavender-hued pastel and pencil illustrations mirror the text's sweet tone.
 , Jun 01, 2016

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