One Hot Summer Day: A Beautiful Photographic Picture Book of Sensory Delights for Kids

by Nina Crews

It’s summer, and it’s hot! Acclaimed author-artist Nina Crews’s debut picture book was hailed as “a wonderful concept book” by The Horn Book and “the debut of a welcome new voice and vision” by Kirkus . The perfect book to share with young children on a hot summer day! One Hot Summer Day is a lively and beautiful photographic concept book about a perfect summer day. This picture book is ideal for sharing in the home or classroom, and readers will feel the summer heat while exploring the sensory delights of summer, including making chalk pictures on the pavement, swinging on the swing set, slurping grape pops, and enjoying a cooling rainstorm. 

Genres: Picture Books, Summer, Storytime, Childrens, Fiction, African American, Juvenile

32 pages, Hardcover

First published May 31, 1995

About the author

Nina Crews is a well known author and an illustrator children's books. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute little girl refuses to play indoors, even though the temps are soaring. The author's photo collage artwork is enjoyable.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

We can all remember those hot summer days as children when it was too hot to play. Great introduction to photography for young children.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

With minimal text, and a unique perspective, Nina Crews uses a cut and paste collage-style, placing cut-out, color photographic images over digitally manipulated settings in surprising and creative ways to convey the sheer joy of an exuberant young African American girl who spends a hot, summer day doing all the wonderful things she loves to do. She “teases” her shadow, creates chalk drawings, plays on the playground, enjoys popsicles, and eventually dances in the cooling, and welcome rain. The juxtaposition of the different photographic images convey movement, and as the simple text and unusual illustration technique come together as a love letter to growing up in the city. This book can be used in a variety of ways and is appropriate for toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners alike. Toddlers and young preschoolers who live in an urban setting will identify with the familiar images, situations, and activities enjoyed throughout the little girl’s day. The narrative is simple, using short sentences and many sight words, making this book a good choice for sharing with beginning and newly independent readers, and the typeface is bold and black, easy to see even against the busy background images of the collage illustrations. Opportunities for extension activities are numerous and may include, talking with the children about the fun things they like to do in the summer time. Discuss with them the wonderful illustrations featured in the book—how do they think these images were created? For and easy open-ended-art extension, have some newspapers, magazines, and catalogs available for the families to use for cutting up and making their own picture collages in the style of Nina Crews’ illustrations for One Hot Summer Day. Other simple extension activities include engaging in shadow play, or making shadow puppets, and providing materials for creating chalk drawings indoors or outdoors.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bright photo collages and short text show an African-American girl enjoying a hot summer day in the city. She teases her shadows, eats two grape popsicles, and when it starts raining, she dances. This short and sweet book is perfect for summertime storytimes.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pros: Captures preschooler's activities as she copes with the heat!

Cons: A couple of photos fuzzy, a confusing page with puzzle pieces.

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book shows a city child dancing and playing through a hot summer day until a thunderstorm comes and brings cool relief. This is a collages book made with color photographs, beautifully organized.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

A children's book that described what a child could do on a hot summer day.

My first impression of this book was purely positive. I was happy to have a book I could read to Lauryn that had an African-American girl as the main subject. However, I quickly found out that the photos that illustrated the books were extremely poor and distracting to the story. The photos appeared to be cut out and placed as illustrations and severely detracted from the main plot of the story. I think I could have done a better job in making this book. The book and words were easy to read, but I just didn't care for the book overall. I would not recommend this book, I believe there are better books out there that could be more entertaining for children.

I would rate this book a 2.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried. I truly did! The story was fine, but those illustrations...YUCK! The little girl is a doll, and if she's actually been in the scenes as they were photographed, it would have been fine, but these weren't cut out in any interesting way. It just looked like a really, REALLY bad Photoshop job. Pass.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good for really young readers, Preschool/Kindergarten. Artwork is interesting, way before the time of good photoshop haha

[Donna Mork · Rating 4 out of 5]

All about a hot summer day. She eats a popsicle, plays with her shadow, then runs to the shade. Then a storm pops up and rains and thunders. It cools everything down. The sun comes back out but now it is cool enough to play on the swings. Done with art and photographs.

[Colorado Buck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great pictures. Great depiction Of what happens on a hot summer day when you live in the city. When it gets so hot you don’t want to go outside and you wait for the thunderstorm to come and cool things off so you can go back outside and play and go to the park

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hot. So hot! One little girl shows what she does on a hot summer day outside her apartment in a bustling city. I love the illustrations, made of photographs cut up and rearranged collage-style. The text is just right for a read-aloud, engaging but simple.

[Margaret Boling · Rating 5 out of 5]

12/24/2023 ~ This may have a copyright of 1995, but it feels timeless. I became aware of this book at the grand opening of a brand new public library branch. The book selector added this book to the library collection, even though it is nearly 35 years old.

[Shari (Shira) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little girl enjoys a summer day in the city.

[Miss Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

real life photos follow a young girl surviving a very hot day in her neighborhood. toddler and up

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much potential but the bad photoshop job to get the adorable preschooler into the photos was just distracting from the overall story.

[Donatello]

want to read

[Tracy Fry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this one aloud for a family story time.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Illustrations overlay with photography, collage like... the story line wasn't as strong though.

[Chrissy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Storytime: Summer

[Katie Mauger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE the art in this book! Makes you feel like you're really there in the hot city, and kids love seeing realistic pictures of other kids.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

One Hot Summer Day by Nina Crews is a concept book about a preschooler's activities during a very hot summer day and her joy over a rain storm that relieves the heat.

The text describes the activities the girl does, including faning herself, dancing with her shadow, drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, eating grape popsicles, and dancing, singing and splashing in the rain.

The photograph collage effectively tells the story while reflecting a very urban landscape. Young children should recognize the familiar activities.

For ages 3 to 5, Summer, heat, rain, play themes, and fans of Nina Crews.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept of illustration, photographic collage and I liked the book as it captures the true essence of being a child on a hot summer day. The choice of photographs in this title won't become outdated quickly as they do in many books illustrated with photos. Besides I wanted to see the artistic talent of the daughter of Ann Jonas and Donald Crews, two great illustrators.

[Gretchen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute, but not one of my favorites.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short narrative/captions with photos of a little girl in an urban summer environment. Captures the essence of a hot day in summer.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, hm. I almost like it but it looks like bad photoshopping instead of creative collage. I might give it a storytime whirl.

[Kerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Recommended by the county for Preschool Aged kids. But I'm not sure why?

[Kerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

On the county reading list for pre-schoolers, but it was pretty lame. Both and I and my preschooler thought so.

[Queer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Simplistic story with utter disregard for plot or content.

[Elizabeth]

The collage style illustration is interesting. The overlain images are cut with like an exacto knife, so they pop in an unexpected way -- they fit the scene really well, so you almost don't notice they're added in, but they have clear demarcation lines.

The illustrations do a good job of conveying the feel of a hot city, with the lighting of the photographs demonstrably different in the images in the shade or the rain.

I could imagine returning to this book over and over for the experience of the illustrations, even though I don't find the text that engaging.