Garmann's Summer

This book won't appeal to everyone ... but I loved it. It is hard to find children's books that talk about fear ... the fact that we are all afraid of something (fear of new things, fear of endings ... death, fear of change in general) but this covers all the above in a very sweet, child appropriate fashion by exploring the thoughts of one little 6 year old boy during the yearly visit from his ancient aunts on the eve of his first day of school. The art work reminds me of Monty Python cartoons.

Summary:
Garmann’s Summer is a contemporary realism book about a young boy who is worried about summer ending and starting school. He fears the unknown and so do his old aunts. He spends his last day of Summer vacation with his family in their garden. They have almond tart and enjoy the afternoon together. Garmann learns that he is not the only one that is afraid of things and that older people are afraid of things too. It is time for his aunts to go back home, the waves them goodbye and goes home to gather his school things in his backpack. He stares out his window and watches a leaf fall from the apple tree and realises school starts in 13 hours.

Reaction:
I enjoyed this book even though it was strange. The illustrations, combined with show more photographs, really brought it to life! It's unusual illustrations are creepy yet intriguing and create the feeling of magical realism. The wacky drawings emphasis the mind of a 6 year old boy and his imagination running wild. The author uses great similes and metaphors that enhance the text. It contains dry humor and also has a sad tone to it. Garmann finds a dead sparrows and buries him. This symbolises the death of his free childhood because tomorrow he is going to start school. The book made me realise that my Summer will be ending soon too and gave me a sad gutted feeling.

Classroom extensions:
1. Ask the children what they were scared of before their first day of school and ask them to reflect on it and how scary or not scary it was.
2. Have the children draw pictures of their family and paste photographs of their faces on their heads.
3. Discuss the importance of family and to always be kind to your elders. show less

Unusual award winning book that pushes the boundries of picture books with illustrations that combine photographs, drawings and collages to create the feeling of magical realism. Garmann's sixth summer is coming to an end and his three elderly aunts come to visit his family. Since Garmann is nervous about going to school, he askes this aunts as well as his parents what they are afraid of and receives very candid answers. He thinks about fear and change and life and death. His family's frank answers to his questions help him understand that everyone is scared about something. While he is still scared at the end of the story, he seems a bit more comfortable with his fears. This story would be great to talk about with children aged 5-7. I show more am not sure how it would work in a group setting, but it would work well individually so the reader could talk about fears with the child. show less

This one is an eye-popper! Again, I love this type of artwork so I may be a little bias, and I can certainly understand that it is not some people's style. The illustrations are magnificent surrealist photo-like collages with a huge range of artistic styles mixed in that, to me, are fantastic.

Garmann's sixth summer is told through real photo/collage type graphics, humorous, detailed huge full page illustrations. Eye catching details,( grandma with wings flying Garmann's x-ray with butterflies in stomach). Book clearly illustrates the thoughts and fantasies and misunderstandings of a child's mind. Reading
level is high enough to be challenging and language level is informative without being too difficult to understand. Lovely, lovely book.

This story is sweet, as it deals with anxiety and fear of the unknown. The little boy, Garmann, is anxious about his first day of school, as many children are, I'm sure. This would be a great way to start off a new year. The only thing to be careful of, however, is that the characters deal with some of their anxiety in a religious manner, so it would be something that needs to be addressed before or after reading to students. Perhaps it would be inappropriate in some classrooms.

This uniquely illustrated book tells the common story of a young 5 year old boy who is worried as the end of summer nears and he is soon starting school. He is shown on the pages with a serious face as he thinks about what is going on his life. Soft comforting illustrations of blues and greens with beautiful aspects of nature depicting the summer setting are in the background. The boy's face continuously shows he is worried as he considers new beginnings and endings as well as fear and courage. His aunts who have come for a summer visit look like grandmas and have comforting and peaceful expressions on their faces that provide the reader with the comfort that aunts and grandmas emit ensuring that the boy will be okay in spite of his all show more the things this 5 year old boy is nervous about. show less