The Lovely Summer

by Marc Simont

Gladys and Jerome, two cottontail rabbits, outsmart the owners of a vegetable garden.

Genres: Picture Books, Summer

32 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1991

About the author

Artist, political cartoonist, and illustrator of more than a hundred children's books, Marc Simont was born in 1915 in Paris. His parents were from the Catalonia region of Spain, and his childhood was spent in France, Spain, and the United States. Encouraged by his father, Joseph Simont, an artist and staff illustrator for the magazine L'Illustration, Marc Simont drew from a young age. Though he later attended art school in Paris and New York, he considers his father to have been his greatest teacher.
When he was nineteen, Mr. Simont settled in America permanently, determined to support himself as an artist. His first illustrations for a children's book appeared in 1939. Since then, Mr. Simont has illustrated nearly a hundred books, working with authors as diverse as Margaret Wise Brown and James Thurber. He won a Caldecott Honor in 1950 for illustrating Ruth Krauss's The Happy Day, and in in 1957 he was awarded the Caldecott Medal for his pictures in A Tree is Nice, by Janice May Udry.
Internationally acclaimed for its grace, humor, and beauty, Marc Simont's art is in collections as far afield at the Kijo Picture Book Museum in Japan, but the honor he holds most dear is having been chosen as the 1997 Illustrator of the Year in his native Catalonia. Mr. Simont and his wife have one grown son, two dogs and a cat. They live in West Cornwall, Connecticut. Marc Simont's most recent book is The Stray Dog.

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 3 stars for the story and 4 for the pictures, although they're a little too cute for me, but Simont really does do lovely work.

[Byuj · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to read to my kids like crazy when they were young because I wanted them to grow up to be voracious readers. And this book stands out in my mind as one of the cutest and funniest books I used to ever read to them! The book went missing for a while during a move and I was pining for it. I couldn’t remember the name of the book and for years I was looking all over the Internet for the name of this book. I kept putting in the search engine what it was about, but it would never come up! Well, we just moved again recently and I found the book and I was so so happy!! It’s now on my shelf with all my other books and I can’t wait to read this to the Grandkids if I will be so blessed that is. The pictures are great and the story is hilarious and my favourite part is this: “Look the nice man is waving at us!” The misunderstanding just cracked me up every time. I must say, though, that like another reviewer said, it depicts trapping an animal and never seeing it again and shooting at animals. In real life as an animal advocate this would be horrifying to me, but for some reason I used to find the story so funny. He drew the frustrated people so well and I loved the innocence of the bunnies who were always so optimistic and only saw the best in the humans. Also, I was on the bunnies’ side so I liked that they prevailed.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

One summer, a family of rabbits discovered a wonderful vegetable garden they felt was out there just for them. There was a carrot in a box, but before they could get it a woodchuck claimed it … with a surprising result. Everything the farmer did turned to the benefit of the rabbits. Delightfully fun story beautifully illustrated.

[Sue Mosher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. Such a cute story about rabbits who think the summer cottage people planted a garden just for them. The illustrations are funny and really help make the story.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet 1950s story about two bunnies who outsmart their farmer neighbor. Please note the farmer resorts to using a gun (out of frustration) but all he hits is his wife’s watering can.