The kids on one Brooklyn block take advantage of everything summer has to offer day after day, because the block belongs to them and they rule the world. Simultaneous eBook. Illustrations. - (Baker & Taylor)

"A group of kids celebrate the joy and freedom of summer on their Brooklyn block"-- - (Baker & Taylor)

Two children’s book superstars—#1 New York Times bestseller Jacqueline Woodson, the author of The Day You Begin, and Leo Espinosa, the illustrator of Islandborn­—join forces to celebrate the joy and freedom of summer in the city, which is gloriously captured in their rhythmic text and lively art.

It's getting hot outside, hot enough to turn on the hydrants and run through the water--and that means it's finally summer in the city! Released from school and reveling in their freedom, the kids on one Brooklyn block take advantage of everything summertime has to offer: Freedom from morning till night to go out to meet their friends and make the streets their playground--jumping double Dutch, playing tag and hide-and-seek, building forts, chasing ice cream trucks, and best of all, believing anything is possible. That is, till their moms call them home for dinner. But not to worry--they know there is always tomorrow to do it all over again--because the block belongs to them and they rule their world.

(This book is also available in Spanish, as El mundo era nuestro!) - (Penguin Putnam)

Jacqueline Woodson is the recipient of a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the 2018 Children’s Literature Legacy Award. She is the 2022 Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence, and was the 2018–2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, won the National Book Award, as well as the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, and an NAACP Image Award. She also wrote the adult books Red at the Bone, a New York Times bestseller, and Another Brooklyn, a National Book Award finalist. Her dozens of books for young readers include Coretta Scott King Award and NAACP Image Award winner Before the Ever After, New York Times bestsellers The Day You Begin and Harbor Me, Newbery Honor winners Feathers, Show Way, and After Tupac and D Foster, and the picture book Each Kindness, which won the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York. 

Leo Espinosa is a New York Times bestselling illustrator and designer from Bogotá, Colombia. His picture books include Islandborn (by Junot Diaz), for which he was awarded a Pura Belpre Illustrator Honor, No More Naps (by Chris Grabenstein), and Goldfish on Vacation (by Sally Lloyd-Jones). His award-winning illustrations have been recognized by American Illustration, Communication Arts, Pictoplasma, 3x3, and the Society of Illustrators (Gold and Silver Medals). In addition, he has given multiple lectures and workshops at schools and institutions such as Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute, as well as serving on the faculty of the Rhode Island School of Design. - (Penguin Putnam)

Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* In this joyful and nostalgic celebration of young Black girlhood, multi-award-winning author Woodson remembers fondly how, not so long ago in Brooklyn, when school ended for the summer, the neighborhood kids headed outdoors to play, "free as air, free as sun." Moms might shout, "Don't get your school clothes wet!" but kids still ran through the fire hydrants, shooting water at each other. Wet hair would spring back into natural coils, because "even hair had the right to be free!" Every day, all summer long, kids played in the street—drawing chalk games on the sidewalk, building forts out of boxes, spinning tops, and skipping rope. Jumping, running, or playing, they felt the whole world belonged to them, and anything seemed possible: their friends could grow up to be ball players, singers, writers, or anything. Voices call out in Spanish, English, Polish, and other languages as they play until the streetlights come on. Brightly colored illustrations jam-packed with joyful details fill every page in this positive endorsement of unstructured play. At the end, readers can join in dreaming along with the child who now sits on her front stoop, excited about the many tomorrows to come—not just in Brooklyn, not just for the summer, but everywhere and always. Preschool-Grade 2. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.

Horn Book Guide Reviews

This lyrical paean to unstructured play does not wax nostalgic or hark back to a simpler time. Rather, Woodson sets out to capture (and brilliantly succeeds in it) a feeling and a moment. She starts off, In Brooklyn / in the summer / not so long ago, and tells readers that the minute / school ended, us kids were as free as air. / Free as sun. Free as summer. While their grownups are busy inside the apartment buildings above, the neighborhood kids spend the long, hot days playing on the city streets. Open hydrants are converted into super squirters, games are invented and mastered, conflicts are collectively resolved, and scraped knees tended. It's a time of endless possibility. Our block was the whole wide world / and the world belonged to us, at least until their mothers call them home for dinner. Espinosa's kinetic pen-and-ink and watercolor art captures a cadre of kids in perpetual motion -- biking, jumping rope, building forts, shooting bottle caps, playing stickball -- and conveys unbridled joy and mutual respect and admiration. This book reminds readers that the benefits of free play, independence, and being excited about what each day may hold can extend beyond a Brooklyn block one summer to a lifetime of creative possibility. Simultaneously published in Spanish as El mundo era nuestro, translated by Yanitzia Canetti. Copyright 2023 Horn Book Guide Reviews.

Horn Book Magazine Reviews

This lyrical paean to unstructured play does not wax nostalgic or hark back to a simpler time. Rather, Woodson sets out to capture (and brilliantly succeeds in it) a feeling and a moment. She starts off, "In Brooklyn / in the summer / not so long ago," and tells readers that "the minute / school ended, us kids were as free as air. / Free as sun. Free as summer." While their grownups are busy inside the apartment buildings above, the neighborhood kids spend the long, hot days playing on the city streets. Open hydrants are converted into super squirters, games are invented and mastered, conflicts are collectively resolved, and scraped knees tended. It's a time of endless possibility. "Our block was the whole wide world / and the world belonged to us," at least until their mothers call them home for dinner. Espinosa's kinetic pen-and-ink and watercolor art captures a cadre of kids in perpetual motion -- biking, jumping rope, building forts, shooting bottle caps, playing stickball -- and conveys unbridled joy and mutual respect and admiration. This book reminds readers that the benefits of free play, independence, and being excited about what each day may hold can extend beyond a Brooklyn block one summer to a lifetime of creative possibility. Simultaneously published in Spanish as El mundo era nuestro, translated by Yanitzia Canetti. Luann Toth July/August 2022 p.106 Copyright 2022 Horn Book Magazine Reviews.

Kirkus Reviews

Kids burst out of school and into summer vacation. Now they can play outside all day till the streetlights come on, when moms call them home. This nostalgic homage to Woodson's childhood in her beloved Brooklyn evokes the senses: the sounds of laughter and double Dutch rhymes, the sight of sidewalk chalk and bottle cap games, and the taste of an ice cream cone with rainbow sprinkles from the ice cream truck. The refrain, "In Brooklyn / in the summer / not so long ago," appears in text the color of summer heat: red, orange, yellow. The bell-bottom plaid pants; white, knee-high, color-ringed tube socks; and loud-and-proud Afros pinpoint this story's '60s or '70s setting. The amazing diversity of the neighborhood comes through both in Espinosa's lively, colorful retro illustrations, which depict Black, brown, and White children, and Woodson's lyrical text, which describes kids calling "out to each other / in Spanish / in English / in Polish / in German / in Chinese." They also get along well, with the older kids looking out for the younger ones and those with ice cream money sharing with those without "because some days the ones with no money / were us." Espinosa depicts many characters with mouths wide open, emphasizing their unbridled delight and loudness. Author and illustrator offer a refreshing reminder of a pre-internet time when full-immersion play was the summer activity and kids took full advantage. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A dream team of talent show and tell a delightful story of summers gone by. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus 2022 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

Written from within a community of friends, in a voice that often uses "we," lilting, intimate-feeling lines by Woodson (The Year We Learned to Fly) capture a delicious sense of autonomy and possibility shared "In Brooklyn/ in the summer/ not so long ago," when "the minute/ school ended, us kids were free as air." Pencil and digital art centers blue skies and city landscapes as Espinosa (The Creature of Habit) draws children of varying ages and skin tones bursting from the doors of a school, with 1970s clothing details that are right on the mark. In the hot days that follow, the kids crowd sidewalks and stoops, open hydrants, and play street games with chalk and bottle caps. They also engage in camaraderie and community care, comforting each other after scrapes, noticing each other's gifts ("We said, You sure can draw... and we meant it"), and sharing an ice cream truck's bounty, "because some days the ones with no money/ were us." And in this Brooklyn nabe, the kids dream big, because "anything was possible/ when a guy from our block was good enough/ to play for the Mets." Affirming the strengths of shared experiences and power drawn from collective appreciation, the creators show how a childhood can engender joy that follows "everywhere I'd ever go." Ages 5–8. Author's agent: Dorian Karchmar, WME. (May)