Renée Watson and Bea Jackson, author and illustrator of Summer is Here (Bloomsbury Publishing), talk about capturing in book form all that summer brings back to you.
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About the book: Summer is Here by Renée Watson; Illustrated by Bea Jackson. Published by Bloomsbury Publishing.
New York Times bestselling creators Renée Watson and Bea Jackson offer a picture book ode to a picture-perfect summer day, from sunrise to sunset.Summer is here!No dark clouds in the sky,it's a perfect day for play.What joy will summer bring me today?
Summer is finally here, and she's bringing the most perfect day! From sunup to sundown, there's so much to do on this lovely summer day. With summer comes fresh fruit, sweet and tangy, jump ropes for leaping and dancing, and friends at the pool swimming and floating. Summer brings family cookouts under shady trees, gardens overflowing, and the familiar song of the ice-cream truck. This beautiful ode to all the season's sensations follows one girl's perfect day in an exploration of joy, family, friendship, sunshine, and wonder.
Her stars shimmer like spilled glitter across the sky.
I whisper a wish and say goodbye to the day.
I wish summer would stay.
Renée Watson celebrates iconic childhood joys in this love letter to summer featuring bright, sun-drenched art from Bea Jackson.
*NOTE: This transcript was AI-generated and may contain errors. I have done my best to clean up as much as I can. This process will improve naturally and with time. Thank you for understanding.
INTRO
Matthew: Welcome back to the Children’s Book Podcast, where we dive deep into the world of creativity, storytelling, and the magic behind the art of creating books for children.
I’m your host, Matthew Winner. Teacher. Librarian. Writer. Fan of kids.
Today, we have the pleasure of welcoming two incredibly talented creators whose collaboration has brought a beautiful and vibrant story to life. Renée Watson is the acclaimed author of Piecing Me Together, the Ryan Hart chapter book series, and co-author of The 1619 Project: Born on the Water. Bea Jackson is the gifted illustrator of Parker Looks Up, Kayla with the Curls, and Right Here!.
Renée and Bea join us today to discuss their delightful new picture book, Summer is Here. Renée’s poignant storytelling and Bea’s stunning illustrations come together to celebrate the joys and wonders of summer, from days spent in the sun, to family cookouts, to days feeling so gloriously long.
In this episode, we’ll explore the creative journey behind Summer is Here, the inspiration that fueled its creation, and how Renée and Bea created a book that resonates with readers of all ages.
So, without further ado, let’s welcome Renée Watson and Bea Jackson to the show!
INTERVIEW
Renée: Hi, my name is Renée Watson and I am the author of Summer is Here.
Bea: Hi, my name is Bea Jackson and I'm the illustrator of Summer is Here.
Matthew: Yay. Well, I, Renée, usually would have my guests start off by book talking the book. Tell me about this book for a kid that hasn't encountered it yet. But as you know, cause I sent you questions ahead of time.
I'm actually going to ask if you could just read to us. Sure. Yeah. I
Renée: will read a few things.
Matthew: Cause I can't wait to hear you read this.
Renée: I'll read just the very beginning and then I'm going to skip to one of my favorite parts because of the illustration. Summer is here. Summer is here. She tiptoes in my room, waking me up with her light.
Her sun rays tickle me, whispering. Rise and shine, no dark clouds in the sky. It's a perfect day for play. What joy will summer bring me today? Summer sings me a song, serenading me from the ice cream truck. She brings me ice cream cones and ice pops and all my favorite sweet treats. I see her in the gigantic bubbles that hang on to my wand, then float away.
Gone, gone.
Matthew: Thank you. There is so much joy imbued into every page of this book. I don't want to assume that you both like summer, but I sort of feel like if you don't, you faked it pretty well. And I'm, I'm a believer. So, uh, well, let me ask you each, if there's just a memory you have tied to summer, whether it's recent or from childhood, Rene, do you have a favorite?
Or maybe a couple childhood memories. Summer is
Renée: actually my favorite season. Fall is a close, you know, second. Um, my birthday is in July and I grew up in Portland, Oregon. So it rains a lot, but in the summer it doesn't rain, um, that much. And so I pretty much could guarantee it would not rain on my birthday.
There'd be no school on my birthday. Oh! I really got to have pretty cool birthday celebrations, uh, summer parties, cookouts. things like that. So yeah, I have a lot of fond memories of the summertime. Um, I think a lot about sitting on the porch with my mother as, as the sun was fading and just the smell of the grass and the, the noise of, of neighbors.
Um, it's just a very comforting memory, just spending time with her on the front porch when I was a little kid. I was probably writing in my notebook and she was reading something and, uh, we would just be hanging out together. So that's one of my favorite summer memories.
Matthew: Lovely. Smell those roses in the summertime out there in Portland.
Yes. Oh yeah. How about you, Bea? Do you have a favorite summer memory?
Bea: Uh, yes, I do. Um, Like, my family, we actually came from the south around Georgia, so that's where we migrated from before we came to Michigan. So, I remember that we would go to, we would travel all the way back to Georgia where we had some of our family there, and we would go into the houses, and it was like a large plot of land.
So, it was like, Kind of like a secret garden experience, but, um, with a lot of, uh, frogs and, you know, giant insects and things like that. But I just remember making it really fun for myself. Like we had this hallway that was lined with mirrors. I have no idea why. So I would always try to guess which door was the real door.
So that was a fun one. And I just remember, like standing on the picnic table with my cousins just singing and making up songs.
Matthew: I love that. I can picture that standing on the picnic table. Yeah,
Bea: so it was like a time where we didn't have to go to school. Everybody, all the kids were You know, especially when I was home, like all the neighborhood kids were out, we would stay out till late at night back when you can kind of get away with it, you know, just, just have fun.
And we'd swim and we'd, you know, run back and forth to the corner store to get ice cream and all those things and chase down the ice cream truck. So it, like the story did bring a back, bring back to me a lot of memories from my childhood and like what summer was like for me.
Matthew: I wonder how many moments we all share in some version of our childhoods.
Running to the corner store to get treats was definitely a big thing for me as my friends and I would bike all around town. I grew up in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, so we would actually bike over to the Little League World Series and see that happening and get comics on the way back and, uh, and, and have those treats and go to the pool and those were just, they were times.
When time lasted forever and also went so fast.
Renée: Yes. Like the days went on and on, but then by the end of the season, you're like, what? It's time to go back to school already.
Matthew: Yeah.
Renée: You remember feeling like the days were just so, so long.
Matthew: Time traveling days. They just felt like, Ooh, yeah. I wonder, I probably felt real long for our grownups too.
Bea: I think a lot of it has to do with the daylight savings time too. Right. I really wish they would just leave it, leave it alone so we could, you know, still have those long days, take advantage of the, you know, of all those daylight hours that we would get.
Matthew: All those daylight hours. B, before we were recording, Renée and I were, we're just starting to pour on that love for your kids.
Gorgeous art and all of the different members, the cast, if you will, of this book and those people we were making connections with. Can you talk to me about your crafts, at least in this book? I know from your other work that this is not a new thing for you to do, but I would love to know, do you, do you know these people?
Renée, did you share photos, these illustrations to me? feel like photos. They feel like moments. They really feel lived in. And like, I can follow a character through the book, Mom especially. So I'd love to hear a little bit more about how you created that cast for this book.
Bea: Uh, yeah. So like in, in terms of like, uh, capturing a moment, I draw a lot of inspiration from Norman Rockwell.
I really love his artwork where like every, just about every piece of his looks like somebody just snapped a candid photo. So I tried to incorporate a lot of the essence of that into my artwork and, um, in building out the story, I wanted to do all the characters that I designed, uh, they're not inspired by anyone in particular.
I kind of had like a lot of fun with it. Um, in terms of references, I looked at random references of, uh. family cookouts, the barbecue that people would get invited to. So I got like a lot of those vibes, but also have, um, my family was like really big, like, um, Again, we did migrate from the South, so it was like a lot of us, uh, and we would go to Belle Isle Island, which is around here in Detroit, and have family reunions, and you always have somebody that brought something, you have somebody that bring the ambrosia.
somebody's always on the grill and things like that. So I would draw from those memories and like those experiences. And now that unfortunately many of that generation has passed on, like it's kind of up to my generation, kind of hold that up. So like you had the, uh, uncle character that was on the grill.
Now I'm on the grill, you know, so I try to incorporate those different things and, and bring in those real memories. Um, but I wanted to show, like, that the lead, that the lead girl, she had, like, a good group of friends that was around her that was consistent with their, um, the diversity in them. And I also wanted to, like, show her features in, uh, in her family members.
So I wanted her to have dimples. I wanted her to have a little, a little gap too. And it was very ironic because I did not know that you had dimples, Renée. I'm like, wow.
Renée: I was like, who, what? Because I've never, it's funny, we talk so much about seeing yourself in literature and, you know, all the things. And I don't know that I, I don't, I can't remember seeing a little black girl with dimples in a book.
And so when I saw that, I just, I was so excited. It was, I was like a little kid. It's so funny. It's funny. Um. Even as an adult, the moments you have when you see yourself, including just body size diversity. I, I love that there are different sized people in this book and that the book is not anything about that, you know, and you just really showed what real families and real communities look like.
So yeah, I recognized so many people in this cast that felt like my family or my neighbors. Uh, and that was really beautiful.
Bea: Thank You.
AD BREAK
Matthew: I loved also seeing, of all of these children and family members that are in the book, we have different ones joining at different times, these ones are coming over to my house, now these are meeting me at the cookout, and we're just, we're seeing how our family is made up of of family and of kinfolk and just it's, it's fluid in that there's so many things that just come across in this that, yeah, you just do it just like the, in your illustrations, the sway of people's hair as they move.
I feel like that's how you're illustrating this entire thing. Just, I'm going to draw this kid because that's who belongs in this picture. And this one's going to be moving like this because that's who belongs. Bea, you're really, you're really tapped into something. And, uh, And it comes through in a beautiful way.
I don't know how you just have art pour out of you. Rene, I want to ask you about how the voice pours out of you, but I guess I come from writing, so I haven't, I have a sense of what it means to write really fast. I want to get it all out of your head and record it. But I know, B, I think there's only so fast we can draw to make that happen.
But let me turn to you, Renata, to ask you about that voice in the story. You shared a little bit about it. I love the personified Summer. Summer is a person that we sort of have this relationship with. We, we beckon out, we give, uh, gratitude toward. What was that journey for you from pen to paper? Did it, did it just come?
Was it one that you were working on for a while? Tell us.
Renée: So I really, I like when setting is a character. Um, I often, when I'm writing about the city of Portland, I will personify Portland. I just, it does something to the text, I think, when you treat the setting, um, not just as the backdrop. So for this ode to summer, I wanted it to feel like a person, like a, like a, your best friend or an auntie that's coming to visit that you don't always get to see, especially in places where folks, I know there are places where people have sun all the time, but for those of us who really, summer is a season and it's a short amount of time, I just wanted to evoke that feeling of something special, if not summer, something you really love and you really miss when it's gone, coming back to you and all the fun things you get to do.
You know, when someone's visiting you, sometimes you get to enjoy your city. in a way that you just don't do it on an everyday basis when you just live there. So I was thinking about how can we make this, this visitor, um, special, even for kids who maybe are like, it's sunny every day here where I live. And, but they could maybe talk about what are the special things that happen that are not, um, constant in their lives.
So I just wanted to think about. That celebration and also the five senses. I really was thinking about how can we smell, taste, touch, feel summer, um, in, in pretty like tangible ways. And so I was really thinking about using sensory detail for this child to really feel summer and talk about summer through her body and what she's smelling and hearing and touching and tasting.
Matthew: See, I think about that then from the library, from the, especially like a public library read aloud that we can have. This is a book that lent itself so well to a sensory read aloud that as we read, we can blow those bubbles, we can taste the popsicle, we can smell the lemons, we can, or, or the grill in this case too.
There's just different, you know, senses that we can evoke while we read this aloud or just by reading it alone, I think are evoked, uh, just in your imagination. I, that's a fun, it's just a fun one. You made a fun book. You both made such a fun book for all of us.
Renée: I love it. Thank you. Thank you. It was fun to write.
It's nice to be in a space too, where I can play as a writer. I mean, you know, a lot of my books, are biographies or have heavier text when they're picture books. So it was just nice to do a very simplified fun story that's celebrating and there's just also making space for that in my body of work to just think about what else do I want to say and what else do I want to celebrate about life and um, what I want to put out into the world and definitely just giving kids a chance to play and to celebrate playtime and imagination and family time.
Matthew: Yeah. Renée, you had read a beginning excerpt and then you jumped to a different part in the book and you mentioned though at the beginning that it was one of your favorite illustrations. Could you describe that illustration for us being on an audio medium? I'd love to hear more about that. Are you aware that she has a favorite illustration?
Bea: No, I wonder if it's the same one that I heard. That was my favorite to draw. Oh, I can't
Renée: wait
Bea: to hear
Renée: that. Away. And again, there were several, but the last page that I read, um, I see her in the gigantic bubbles that hang on to my wand, then floats away, gone, gone, gone. The little girl is below me in the bubbles and it's a full spread and we get to see all these bubbles.
Um, I love. I just love it. I, first of all, I love to this day as a grown woman, I like blowing bubbles and I love when I see kids outside running through the bubbles and all of that. When you do it very slowly, you can make them really, really big. So I think I like that page for this, but it moves when you look at the book.
It just feels magical to see these bubbles that feel like they're moving and like they're really hanging on to her
Matthew: wand. The profile really serves that, doesn't it? To have the character's profile makes me as we put ourselves onto books makes me want to make that pose as well. And that evokes the memory as well.
Renée: Yeah, for sure. And then her hairstyle is fly. We get to see her dimple there. You know, I just feel like it's a really strong, um, image and a beautiful spread of the book. And when I have been like, just on social media being tagged, that is the expression most kids are doing there. I keep getting Tagged in these photos with young people blowing bubbles or trying to recreate that.
It's also the cover. I mean, it's part of the cover. So a lot of kids have gravitated to that page as well.
Matthew: Bee, was that yours as well? Yes.
Bea: Yes, it was. Really? Well, it is. It is my favorite. And I think that's also probably why I made it on the cover because, um, you know, I had a lot of fun with it. And I really love opportunities where I can.
can sprinkle in a lot of colors and the bubbles gave me the opportunity to do that. Uh, but it, it was really fun and, and, uh, you know, just trying to capture that moment and it, and sometimes I like, I like to put a lot of detail in my characters. So being able to get the closeups where I can like really render out the hair and the beads and all that stuff was really fun for me too.
Matthew: Yeah. So
Bea: It was my favorite to draw.
Matthew: Well, to know that this image came from your mind. and came onto the paper the way that it did in these two different compositions, right? The cover and this, this, uh, the spread are slightly different, but then also that as the book is making its way to readers to hear, Renée, that you've got readers doing that as well, that this is their, this is their world.
This is their book. They get to, uh, connect and share in it too. It's just wonderful. Thank you both for all of you that you put in to make this book. It's beautiful.
Bea: Thank
Matthew: you.
Bea: Welcome. Thank you.
Matthew: I am going to wrap up our time together, uh, by asking this question that, um, we are recording during the summer, but, uh, I have a habit of asking this question and bringing these messages back to my students, my pre K through fifth grade, as well as other librarians.
We share this message with our readers. So, Renée, I'll ask you, I will see a library full of children soon. Is there a message that I can bring to them from you?
Renée: So I always end my author visits in schools challenging our young people to be bold and to be brave and to use their voices for something good.
So that means standing up for a friend, giving a compliment, um, apologizing if you did something you need to apologize for. How can you use your voice to bring good into the world in small everyday ways? So that is what I would like you to share with them is to be bold and brave and to use their voices.
Matthew: Wonderful. Bea, is there a message that I can bring to them from you?
Bea: Of course. My message usually is to be creative. Like never lose that spark that makes you want to want to draw, makes you want to sing, makes you want to dance. Um, when you grow up, sometimes it's easy to lose sight of those things. And I try to keep in touch with that always.
And that's, that's how I'm able to bring those emotions out through my artwork. and you can relive those days and, and find joy in that experience and just, just never lose it. Have fun with the experience and have fun with drawing. Just don't limit yourself and just see what comes out onto the canvas.
See what comes out through your voice, through your dance and be free in that way.
OUTRO
Matthew: Thank you to Renée Watson and Bea Jackson for joining me on The Children’s Book Podcast.
You can pick up your own copy of Summer is Here (Bloomsbury Publishing) wherever books are found. Consider supporting independent bookstores by shopping through Bookshop.org. You can also use my affiliate link by clicking on the book’s name in our show notes. I highly recommend checking out the audiobooks! Both are available through Libro.fm and you can support independent bookstores in the process!
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You can support the show and buy me a coffee at matthewcwinner.com or by clicking the link in the show notes.
And on that note…
Be well. And read on.
End Of Episode
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