Heat Wave

Spinelli, Eileen. 2007. Heat Wave. Illustrated by Betsy Lewin.

I am not a fan of hot-and-sticky summer days. Give me a nice, cold air-conditioned room and I'll get by....but the characters in Spinelli's Heat Wave don't have that option. No, this picture book primarily illustrated with oranges, reds, and yellows, is set in the days before air conditioning. The story is a simple one. It follows a town throughout a record-breaking heat wave. All the town folks suffer through best they can, but misery and discomfort abound. Towards the end of the week, the town starts dreaming the same dream...

I thought I would like this one more than I did. I don't know if it's me or the book, quite honestly. It's certainly hot enough in Texas to relate to the sentiments of Heat Wave. But for some reason, this one just didn't live up to my expectations. And the plot was a bit boring to me.