text: Wherever you are this summer of 2020, with COVID swirling around and many needing comfort, what better than to pick up a book that reminds you of summers past? Sheree Fitch’s delightfully playful language would be a treat to read to young ones – after all, Summer Feet is a children’s book. Not being either a child or having a willing one nearby, I read it aloud to myself several times, revisiting the exuberance of summers past.
  A quote on Fitch’s webpage expresses the feeling perfectly: “In the moment of the telling of the poem or the story there is the creation of a safe place.”
  With a host of children’s books to her credit (as well as poetry, nonfiction, plays and novels for all ages), Sheree Fitch knows her audience. Her tongue-twisty language takes a child (or a child at heart) on a fun romp through the barefoot adventures of summers. You will remember them! Laugh as you read to your young ones. I love that she wrote two non-fiction books for children who are aspiring writers. And that she has made significant contributions to Canadian literature, education and worked as a literacy advocate and activist for social justice, especially on issues affecting women and children.
  A smile starts with the book’s cover. Award-winning author/artist Carolyn Fisher pairs her whimsical and colourful artwork perfectly with Fitch’s language. Fisher’s credits include having her book Two Old Potatoes and Me featured on the PBS educational TV show Reading Rainbow.
  It’s summer! So, kick off your shoes and participate in a “hazy-day, lazy-day [of]
  word-swirling book-lovin’ sticky-sweet bare-naked summer feet!
  About the Author: Sheree Fitch’s first two books, Toes in My Nose (1987) and Sleeping Dragons All Around (1989), launched her career as a poet, rhymester, and a “kind of Canadian female Dr. Seuss.” Fitch has won almost every major award for Canadian children’s literature since then, including the 2000 Vicky Metcalf Award for a Body of Work Inspirational to Canadian Children. She has over twenty-five books to her credit, including her bestselling and critically praised adult novel, Kiss the Joy As It Flies (2008). Fitch’s home base is the East Coast of Canada. Visit her at shereefitch.com
  About the illustrator: Award-winning artist/author Carolyn Fisher has illustrated seven children’s books, two of which she also wrote. Her most recent titles are Weeds Find a Way and Good Night, World. Her art has been exhibited in the US and Canada. In addition to teaching at art college for seven years, Carolyn has talked to thousands of kids in schools and libraries about making books. See www.carolynfisher.com or Instagram: @carolyn_fisher_illustration.
  Title: Summer Feet
  Author: Sheree Fitch
  Publisher: Nimbus Publishing Limited
  About the Reviewer: Patricia Sandberg escaped a law career and became a writer. Her short stories have been shortlisted in competitions, published at The Cabinet of Heed and in the Lit Mag Love Anthology. She is hard at work on a World War I historical novel. Her 2016 award-winning, nonfiction book Sun Dogs and Yellowcake: Gunnar Mines, a Canadian Story is about life in a uranium mine in northern Canada during the height of the Cold War.