Our Pool

by Lucy Ruth Cummins

On a hot day, people come from all over the city to spend the day at the pool in this joyful picture book that’s a love song to summer, the city, community, and staying cool!

Today is a pool day in the city! The sun is shining, so what are you waiting for? Friends and family. Kids and grandparents. Big bodies and small bodies. Everybody is welcome at our pool! Get ready for swimming and splashing, zigzagging and dunking, and racing and laughing.

Genres: Picture Books, Summer, Storytime, Childrens, Family, Fiction, Realistic Fiction

48 pages, Hardcover

First published June 13, 2023

About the author

Lucy Ruth Cummins is an author, illustrator, and art director. She is the executive art director of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers where she has worked for two decades on picture books, middle grade books, and young adult novels. She also manages a team of talented art directors and designers.

Lucy made her critically acclaimed debut as an author and illustrator with A Hungry Lion, or a Dwindling Assortment of Animals. She is also the author-illustrator of Stumpkin, Vampenguin, and Our Pool.

She is the illustrator of several books written by other authors, including Truman, written by Jean Reidy; Sounds Like School Spirit, written by Meg Fleming; and The Rescuer of Tiny Creatures, by Curtis Manning. She is also the author of Sleepy Sheepy, and Sleepy Sheepy and the Sheepover, illustrated by Pete Oswald.

Lucy’s books have been chosen as Publisher’s Weekly Best Books, NPR Best Books, New York Times Best Children’s Books, and have also been celebrated with both Irma Black honors, and a Governor General’s award honor. Her books can be purchased on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and preferably at Indie Bound or your own local bookstore! And of course she’s always thrilled if you check her out from the library.

Born in Canada, she is the youngest of six children, and her family lived in an actual log cabin. She grew up in Cortland, New York, and she now lives with her little family in Brooklyn, New York. Her favorite food is the french fry.

Reviews

[Katie Reilley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked up this one at ALAAC23 in Chicago and was delighted to meet Lucy Ruth Cummins and get it autographed.

At first glance, I was worried that it might be too young for my fourth and fifth grade readers, but I was definitely wrong. Not only does this picture book, celebrate all the joy felt on a perfect summer pool day, but it does so with a vibrant illustrations and gorgeous figurative language.

Favorite alliteration:
•sweating, smiling, and skip-stepping
•slippery, slimy sunblock

Favorite onomatopoeia:
•CLANK
•CACHUNK
•bare feet slap slap slap

Favorite similes:
•Like a fish out of water, I’m suddenly flopping, flailing, straining toward the pool’s edge as mom coats me from head to pinky toe in slippery, slimy sunblock.
• I wrap my arms around her neck and float behind her like a cape.

[Molly Cluff (Library!) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, the details in this "day at the pool" book are spot on! Like taking giant "moon man" steps in the water, swimming under each others legs, and draping out behind your grownup like a cape. Really captured the experience! Colorful, cute illustrations too!

[DaNae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could almost smell the chlorine.

[Becky Loader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely!!!

[donna backshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love children's books, but I rarely find myself losing myself inside one. This is one of those rare books that had me AT THAT POOL, floating, feeling the heat and waiting for the ice cream truck when the day was ending, and it was glorious.

[Book Buying With Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect summer day nostalgia in book form.

[RG]

This picture book captures all of the best things about being a child at the pool!

[Elizabeth]

I wish it was a little shorter, so I could read this in story time. However, I love the bright colors throughout the book!

[Blanco Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

After my first read, I thought, “the writing is too simple”, and I wasn’t going to give it a high rating.

My human felt the same.
However, once she thought about it, and took a moment to reminisce, she thought, “This book captures all the fun and friendships and everything that I loved so much about going to the pool!”

(I can’t relate because I do NOT like water. So just pretend I’m writing the remainder of this review.)

“STOP SUNBLOCK!”
I felt this moment. All you want to do is get into the pool as fast as you can and STOP!
There’s no time to put on sunblock! Hurry, hurry, are you done? No matter how careful I was with sunscreen, I always got burned. So I hated wasting time putting it on Before I went in the pool because it was going to wash off anyway. (Sunscreens are much better nowadays.)

And of course, each person has their own style of getting in the pool. Are you a jump right in? Or inch by inch?
What else was exactly like I remembered?
- Floating behind someone like a cape,
- everyone (the kids) playing Marco Polo,
- doing flips and handstands,
- swimming through each others legs, feeling like dolphins
- and crossing your fingers that the pool wouldn’t close when a threatening storm cloud comes.

So as simple as the writing is, I think it’s just right.

The illustrations are pretty cool too. I liked the center spread where everyone is floating.
And just like my pool, there are a lot of different types of people and families represented. (And I appreciated that the illustrator included a POC needing sunblock.)
I also liked the simple, but effective technique that the illustrator used to show the blurriness and refraction when part of your body is underwater and part is above. Clever.

[YourBookishLife · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucy Ruth Cummins has captured the magic of the community pool in this delightful picture book.

If you’ve ever been to a public pool on a super hot day, you understand their importance. Not just a place to cool off, community pools are meeting places. A neutral space where everyone is welcome and new friendships are forged, and old ones are strengthened. It’s a place to greet your neighbours and catch up on what’s happening in the neighbourhood. This book is a fitting tribute to these critical places.

With sensory invoking words and phrases, Lucy transports us to a hot summer day. You can practically feel the heat of the pavement and the cool relief of the pool. I love how she captured all the ways to enjoy the pool. All the games that get made up, the silence under the surface, and even the way everyone freezes when the lifeguard’s whistle blows.

Kids will love the joyful illustrations in their watercolour glory. With bright colours that capture the intensity of hot summer days, the pictures add to your enjoyment of the story. And I love the way the book is designed. The variation in text and layout will keep kids interested and flipping the pages to see what comes next.

A great read aloud story for the littles in your life, Our Pool is the perfect story for hot summer days.

Click on the link to read more of our reviews on our blog: https://yourbookishlife.com/book-revi...

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story about a community pool. My family goes to a community pool every summer. It's a good place.

This book is about a day at the community pool on a hot summer day. We see from beginning to end and how worn out you can get at the pool.

The artwork was done in Gouache and colored pencil and then finished digitally. The colors are bright and you get a real sense of the pool. It's a crowded pool too and you get a sense for that as well.

I used to love pools, but now I feel like a community pool is a bowl of shared body fluids. I can get in, but I have to turn that part of my brain off. I prefer a lake or river really. I also don't like a crowded pool. One, it's too loud, and two, it's just too much.

Two years ago in August we rented a Airbnb in western lower Maine close to the NH border. The house was on this beautiful small lake. It was about 6 feet deep for a good 100 feet out. They had a floating platform. It was quiet and the water was a beautiful jewel tone blue. I stayed out there all day. It was amazing. It's now one of my favorite places. It's was also beautiful weather. That was a great day in the water, I know that nothing about this book, but that might have been my last day in the water.

[Taylor Woolley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story has a lot of potential, but I had a hard time fully connecting with it. The text is written in first person from a child’s point of view, yet the illustrations don’t clearly establish a single child to follow. I understand Cummins may have been aiming to emphasize that the pool belongs to everyone, but I still found myself wanting a more defined “main character” to follow through the day.

A few visual details also pulled me out of the story. For example, when the text mentions getting out bagels to eat, the spread shows groups picnicking on blankets, but no one appears to be eating bagels. While the bright palette is fun and summery, and the art does capture the feeling of a long, hot day at the pool, I wished the pictures carried a stronger sense of narrative progression from scene to scene.

[TheRetiredSchoolLibrarian |Mrs. Ferraris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brief summary: We watch as many wake up and go to the city pool with other families. They change into a bathing suit, get covered with sunblock, and go into the cool blue water. Everyone plays above and below the water until it's time to eat lunch on spread-out towels on concrete. They do more swimming before heading home with a treat from the ice cream truck.

The bright summer colors illustrations are showcased in many two page spreads with details and descriptive words that had me feeling like I was at the pool smelling the chlorine, hearing the shouting and laughter, and the coolness of the water.

Rating: 5/5 📗📗📗📗📗

[Jaimie Franchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is pure and utter joy. Lucy Ruth Cummins has taken the seemingly mundane subject of the local city pool and squeezed out every possible moment of sensory and experiential delight. As someone raising children in the heart of Montreal, I’m always excited about well-done urban-themed books, but this one goes above and beyond and will surely please any child (and adult!) The illustrations rise to the level of the text, including one entire spread that is simply the interior of an orange beach towel as the mother wraps it around the child. A+, five stars, well beyond anything I was expecting.

[Brittney Lyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been on repeat since we received it in the mail last week…

Thank you @simonkids 📚

I’m not sure who was more excited for this new release by @thelucyruth the girls or myself. Capturing the nostalgia of the community pool and all its glory this shares playful summer words alongside some of the most beautiful illustrations with pops of neon and scenes that welcome you to the pool! This one exudes vibes of the famous pool scene of In the Heights or from the classic community pool scene in The Sandlot. A great book to kick off summer!

[Brooke - TheBrookeList · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fabulous summer read. Our Pool by Lucy Ruth Cummins is a poetic walk down memory lane of a perfectly spent summer day. We all have childhood days spent at a community pool, enjoying the sunshine, soaking up the feelings of freedom, and watching all the variety of people around us. The pictures are engaging, the bright neons captivating, and the poetry relatable on so many levels. It’s a lovely capture of childhood bliss.

Read as a potential nomination in the Fiction Picture Book book award category as a panelist for Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards (Cybils Awards).

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Lucy Ruth Cummins and Simon and Schuster for a copy of Our Pool. I love reviewing childrens' books.
The cover is beautiful - a bright pool water blue with lots of floating swimmers. This is a book about all types of neighbors going to the city pool on a hot day and sharing the pool together - young and old. I loved the images of the neighbors walking to the pool together than home again.
I also loved all the different shades of people included -even sunburnt! This is a wonderful, fun book about what it means to share something together that everyone can enjoy.

[Dove Tupper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had a lot of good imagery. The reader can see that it was made for a youthful audience with the crayon created illustrations & the varied sizes of texts engaging the youthful eyes & mind. The images from page to page were cohesive often spreading across the gutter. The themes of community enhanced the promotion of the idea of sharing & you can also see a presence of diversity. Descripiton of the scene & voice was very rich throughout this story. Overall this was a fun book that included lots of activities & that are appealing to kids.

[Kayleigh Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was such a fun, summer time read for me on a rainy day. I loved the message of everyone having fun together at the pool, no matter what they look like, who they are or anything like that. They all belonged at the pool. I loved the illustrations that really showed what water looks like when people are in it, along with just being beautiful. I loved how many different literary tools are used like alliterations, onomatopoeia's, etc. Four stars only because it was a littler longer than I would've liked but it was wonderful overall.

[Nicole Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher for my honest review.

This is such a wonderful summer book! Centered around the City Pool, what I love most about this book is that our narrator is unknown, so the child speaking can be any of the diverse kids in this book, ensuring that anyone can relate to this summer celebration of swimming. A wonderful book for anyone, but especially those who live in the city.

[Bekah Hubstenberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

First person narrative of a hot summer day spent at the pool, an “…ice-cold bowl of City People Soup!” What a great summer story! A little long for pre-k storytime but would work for an older elementary class. Could also be worked as a lesson on figurative language. One of the most unique things is that the narrator is never revealed, allowing all readers and listeners to imagine themselves in the story.

Beautiful language and use of text design to convey movement.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a big public pool fan myself, so I recognized the excitement to go swimming on a hot summer day and the perfectly described events leading up to swimming. The illustrations are so bright, colorful, and fun and strengthened by diversity in skin color, body size, and physical features. I love that you don’t place the narrator in the story, which allows a young reader to center them self in the story.

[Terresa Wellborn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summery bright illustrations and punchy prose come together for the perfect summer concotion: a story about going to the city pool. Anyone who's ever enjoyed an afternoon at one, will love this book that brings all those memories back...the smell of sunscreen, the sun on your back, and the cool water on your toes...

Themes: pools/swimming, urban life, summer
Ages: K-2nd grade (could share a few pages for toddlers/preK; use for an intro storytime book)
Pub year: 2023

[Erin Buhr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This vibrant, energetic book feels like a childhood memory captured between the pages. It follows a day at the pool in a city from start to finish. The splashing, the marco polo games, the sunscreen, the safety breaks - it's all here. With poetic language and bright, playful illustrations, the energy and emotions, the clutter and the fun are all on full display. This is a perfect book for summertime.

[Tina Hoggatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another home run for this author/illustrator, celebrating the anticipation, the getting ready, and the swimming in a community pool. The voice is communal as well, and joyful. The illustration style here is loose and funky, bright and active. I particularly love the spreads where we see the pool from above, filled with people doing all the things we do in a pool. And when the day is done? Ice cream, the journey home, and a good night's sleep - with dreams of our pool. Ahhhhh.

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It’s an ice-cold bowl of City People Soup!” says the narrator of this story, a boy who enjoys Pool Day with his mother and describes all the diversity of people and activities he encounters at the city pool. Delightfully imaginative illustrations show how the community pool becomes a place where people of all types can cool off on “hot days, wet days, and fingers-firmly-crossed-for-ice-cream-cone days” of summer.

[Kairi Ehlers]

This book is a book about a public pool. With lots of inclusion and diversity of different races and types of people showcased through out. There is a "main character" that speaks through the book but is never showcased so the readers and listeners could imagine themselves as the main character.

This book is another good book to use in the classroom to showcase diversity and show that everyone is different and that is a good thing.

[Jack Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only is OUR POOL everything that other readers have mentioned — a fantastic, fun and simultaneously reflective celebration on what it means to gather and swim together as a community — it's also a gorgeous visual feast, full of buzzing energy and brilliant colours. Get it to accompany your pool visits this summer; keep it on hand as a Vitamin D supplement come winter!

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great- love the illustrations, love how vibrant and relatable every part felt. It also features a diverse set of characters, and the author really cleverly illustrates the story in such a way that almost every child should be able to see themselves as the main character. A great summer read.

[Sirah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a hot summer day: time to visit the pool.

This picture book offers a vivid tour of a community pool through the eyes of a child. The sentences are simple, and the story is observant. I kind of like that it's never obvious who the protagonist is. The art is all swishy, just like the pool water. Definitely a pleasant summer read.