Our Pool

Public pools, those unsung heroes of public good, have found their bard in Cummins (Sleepy Sheepy). In vibrant gouache and colored pencil hues that are reminiscent of a schoolchild’s paint set, initial pages show a variously inclusive parade of city dwellers “sweating, and smiling, and skip-stepping toward... OUR POOL!” As the illustrations move over, around, and under the be-goggled crowd in compositions ranging from reportorial to bird’s-eye view, the story’s kid narrator enthusiastically recounts the ritual-like pleasures of pool-going, from getting changed to getting in (“I’m the JUMP-RIGHT-IN! type”) to breathless communal reactions over the sun’s movements to a final, parting cannonball. In a cleverly executed conceit, the first-person narrator is never tied to a specific individual: when Mom insists on sunscreen, Cummins zooms in on four adult hands brandishing bottles and cans; when the narrator floats behind Mom “like a cape,” readers see multiple parent-child pairs moving through the water in a line. It’s a joyfully saturated vision of e pluribus unum shown via “an ice-cold bowl of City People Soup!” Ages 4–8. Agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Jr./Folio Literary Management. (June)