Summer Time

Summer Time is the third collaboration between Antonia Pesenti & Hilary Bell published by New South Books. It follows on from the success of Alphabetical Sydney and Numerical Street, the third book in the trilogy about place and belonging.

Like its companions, it is a non-narrative picture book that uses a familiar typology. While the earlier books used, respectively, the framework of the alphabet and counting as structures, Summer Time uses the passage of time to explore the pilgrimages and rituals of an Australian summer.

It pays tribute to amenities blocks, Neapolitan icecream and holiday cottages. It encompasses places as archetypal and diverse as the municipal pool, the beach, the suburban backyard and the fire-blackened bush.

It progresses in a loosely chronological way: moving forward from an instant to a year. The book is imbued with a sense of timelessness, quantifiable units of time are mixed with the poetic: eight seconds for the revolving fan to turn your way; an eternity until you’re allowed to swim after lunch.

The verse is languid and playful, hopping between the comic and the wistful. The illustrations are open and dreamlike, mixing collage and hand drawings in Antonia’s distinctive style.

“I have used this in schools from kindy to high school and have never seen a book that appealed to such a broad cross-section of kids on lots of different levels. This is one that deserves to sit proudly in every classroom and household, so take a breath and dive in to the gloriously wonderful SUMMER TIME experience” Gleebooks Kids.

LONGLISTED for the 2020 ABIA Small Publisher's Children's Book of the Year

SHORTLISTED for Australian Book Design Awards 2022