Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Burgess and Chien palpably capture the sensations of a city’s hot summer day in this buoyant picture book. Two children begin their day over breakfast before heading out into the heat for errands that take them past a spraying fire hydrant, a jazzy saxophonist in the park, and dancy beats spilling out of car windows. After a pause for drippy, sweet watermelon, they head to the roof of their building for a brilliant fireworks display, which Chien renders thrillingly with sharp, bright pops of color on one spread and a glowing, page-filling shower of sparks on another. Burgess’s tight poetic lines poignantly evoke the children’s experiences (“bubble cheeks blowing brassy blasts”; “the sharp charcoal sniff / of a thousand matches extinguished”), while bouncy onomatopoeia jostles across Chien’s playful multimedia artwork. It’s a joyful celebration of simply being alive and experiencing the world in the guileless way children do, moving from feeling to feeling and appreciating whatever comes next. The final spreads, after the children prepare for bed, artfully tie the boom of the fireworks to the thump of a heartbeat, closing on their silhouettes, now full of sizzling specks of bright color. An electric, affectionate, and enchanting ode to delicious summer delights.

Horn Book
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Two young siblings, who serve as narrators, enjoy an eventful summer day that ends with an epic fireworks display. The story begins with them greeting the morning and eating their breakfast with chopsticks and a spoon, then heading outside into a festive urban landscape. They splash in water spraying from a fire hydrant, munch on slices of watermelon, and listen to live music in the park. Burgess packs his poetic text with zesty sound effects and onomatopoeia that make this a must for reading aloud. As darkness falls, the children climb a fire escape "up, up, up" to a roof, where they behold the amazing fireworks display. From start to finish, Chien's evocative, childlike mixed-media illustrations pop and soar, creating a series of memorable images. The day's hazy heat is visible; and the fireworks exploding over the skyline are almost audible -- a thrilling gatefold catches the display in all its splendor. After the last sizzles fade, Burgess brings the kids back home, where a caring elder lovingly prepares them for bed. As they dream about the pyrotechnics they've witnessed, Chien serves up a glorious expressionistic image of their silhouettes filled with dazzling flashes of color. An immersive celebration of summer and siblinghood. (c) Copyright 2025. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Writing in limpid prose and illustrating in sunny, softly stroked multimedia spreads, previous collaborators Burgess and Chien (The Bear and the Moon) follow two East Asian–cued children through a hot city Fourth of July. “In the summer, the sun rises/ between buildings on our block/ to greet us at breakfast,” where one feeds a mouthful to the other as a smiling, white-haired caretaker watches from the kitchen. When the kids head out around noon, it’s already so warm that a leaky hydrant means “we do what all kids do” and leap into the water: “Whoop Weee Woohoo!” After a bodega stop, they see a park sax player blowing “brassy blasts/ that make us onlookers dance.” And that night, the two climb a fire escape to a roof for fireworks, waiting until brilliant light showers the skies: “A comet streaking across the sky BURSTS into a flower of fire (THE FIRST!).” In this joyous seasonal idyll, the creators capture with onomatopoeic eloquence the day’s sensations, and establish the children’s day as free and expansive, with plenty of time to savor sounds, sights, and “summer on our skin.” Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (May)

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Two children cut loose on the Fourth of July. As the book opens, the brown-skinned, dark-haired youngsters explain that “in the summer, the sun rises between buildings on our block to greet us at breakfast and it beats warmer and brighter when we venture out across steamy city sidewalks.” At noon, relief arrives as the children gleefully run through the water sprayed by a fire hydrant. On their way to a local bodega, they wind their way through a park before devouring ruby-red pieces of watermelon. Words dance across the page (“Shooka-shooka shooka-shooka”) as the kids move to the sounds of salsa music. Back at home, Grandma cooks dinner for the children, and as night falls, the youngsters scale a “rickety ladder” to the rooftop, where they wait until…“POP!” Fireworks rain down in a literal explosion of colors and words cascading over silhouetted images of the kids. Burgess’ succinct, sensory-rich, onomatopoeia-laden text beats with an infectious rhythm, while Chien’s impressionistic mixed-media artwork sets the mood beautifully on each spread, from a hazy scene where people seem to fade into the background amid the heat to the dazzling depictions of fireworks, followed by a cozy montage of Grandma getting the kids ready for bed. Landmarks indicate that the tale is set in New York City; this is an immersive tribute to the unique pleasures of an urban Fourth of July. A radiant celebration of all things summer.(Picture book. 4-7) Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.