When Summer Comes: Exploring Nature in Our Warmest Season

Poetic children’s book celebrating nature and wildlife in the summer season.

Summer is the perfect season for families to embrace the outdoors. When Summer Comes celebrates playing and exploring in the wilderness during the summer months.

When summer comes,
and the sky soars blue above us,
and the days stretch long and warm before us,
some people head to ball games and outdoor markets.

Instead we gather our gear.

Binoculars.
Hiking poles.
Backpacks.
Butterfly nets.
Shovels and buckets for trips to the shore.

Summer’s the season when we explore.

This follow up to When Winter Comes is about the joy of being outdoors and discovering wildlife during the summer months.

AIMÉE M. BISSONETTE is the author of three picture books, North Woods Girl, Miss Colfax’s Light, and Aim for the Skies: Jerrie Mock and Joan Merriam Smith’s Race to Complete Amelia Earhart’s Quest. North Woods Girl won the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award, Midwest Booksellers Choice Award, and Friends of American Writers Award. Miss Colfax’s Light was named in ALA’s 2017 Amelia Bloomer List and was a recipient of the 2017 International Literacy Association Children’s Book Award for Primary Nonfiction.

ERIN HOURIGAN is an illustrator and author in Portland, Oregon. She grew up in Southern California, and studied illustration at Cal State Fullerton before moving to Oregon, where she learned to trade the waves for pine trees and rivers. She draws much of her inspiration from the world around her and loves spending time outdoors, whether it’s on a hike or just playing with her dog, Scout.