Summer Is Here - Book Reading

Join us on Saturday, July 20th, 11am-12pm, for a special reading of Summer Is Here with the author, Renée Watson.

Summer is finally here, and she's bringing the most perfect day! From sunup to sundown, there's so much to do on this lovely summer day.

With summer comes fresh fruit, sweet and tangy, jump ropes for leaping and dancing, and friends at the pool swimming and floating. Summer brings family cookouts under shady trees, gardens overflowing, and the familiar song of the ice-cream truck.

Educator, poet, and author Renée Watson celebrates iconic childhood joys in this love letter to summer featuring bright, sun-drenched art from Bea Jackson.

Copies of Summer Is Here will be available for purchase from Word Up Community Bookstore.

About the Author

Renée Watson is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Her novel, Piecing Me Together, received a Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award. Her books include the Ryan Hart series, Some Places More Than Others, This Side of Home, What Momma Left Me, Betty Before X, cowritten with Ilyasah Shabazz, Watch Us Rise, cowritten with Ellen Hagan, and Love Is a Revolution, as well as acclaimed picture books: Maya's Song, The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, written with Nikole Hannah-Jones, A Place Where Hurricanes Happen, and Harlem's Little Blackbird, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Renée splits her time between Portland, Oregon and New York City.

About the Illustrator

Bea Jackson creates to encapsulate a moment in time, challenging herself to combine her boundless imagination with experiences and emotion and capture the result on paper. A lifelong collector of both picture books and comics, she admires art’s ability to speak perfectly on its own and translate ideas without words. As a digital painter using textures that mimic pastels, oil paints, and watercolor, she pursues the rainbow in her palette, seeking to add a touch of childhood magic to her work. From one of her earliest illustrated picture books, Hair Like Mine, to the New York Times bestselling Parker Looks Up, Bea explores themes that unify rather than divide.

About the Book Distributor

Founded in 2011, Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria is a multilingual, collectively operated bookshop and arts space in Washington Heights. At Word Up, located at 2113 Amsterdam Avenue at 165th Street, you'll find new and used books, in English and Spanish, for all ages. A second location, Recirculation, is located at 876 Riverside Drive at 160th Street, where you'll find thousands of used books available for pay-what-you-can prices. To find out more about upcoming events, volunteering opportunities, and how to support, please check out www.WordUpBooks.com.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Sugar Hill Creamery, 184 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, United States