The Rhyming verse on each double page spread encapsulates the feeling of summer that many Australians feel as the weather warms up, the magpies come out and the beach calls.
Summer Time by Antonia Pesenti and illustrated by Hilary Bell is the third collaboration between these two creators – previously producing Alphabetical Sydney and Numerical Street.
Australian children will adore this book with so many links to what their summer days are filled with – pools, beaches, bushwalks and birds.
Readers will see the magpies protecting their young and Golden Orb weaving spiders catching their prey.
It also highlights the heat and fragility of the natural world with bushfires that rage and black hollow trees that start to sprout green after bushfires.
It makes you stop and realise how lucky we are to have this beautiful weather and the waterways to spend it in.
Summer is my favourite time of year with the abundance of school holidays and the warm sunny days, the freedom to be outside and swim at the beach.
The illustrations are summery pastels which evoke the feelings that summer brings and the night time changes in our starry sky.
Summer Time is a great book to use in the classroom for a look into the summer season of Australia. It is also a lovely way to explore rhyme and storytelling.
Children can create their own pictures of summer with a rhyming stanza to explore just how much they love summer!
What did we do?
Summer – Writing
What is your favourite thing (or maybe there are more) to do in summer? Students, using pastels and summer colours, draw an image of this activity.
Depending on the age group
- Using the five senses, what happens in this image?
- Write a rhyming stanza to describe this image.
Australian seasons
Compare summer in southern parts of Australia to that of the Top End. How is their summer time different? What would children do differently?
Bushfires
What causes them and how do we know when they happen?
How can we stop them from devastating the land and the animals?
Explore up to date newspaper articles along with the fires near me app.
Indigenous Australia
How did the indigenous people of Australia use fire to help? Can we use this advice in the current Australia?
What is the Emu in the sky? Explore other Australian constellations.
