Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature)
Long before everyone had air conditioning, a heat wave was serious news, as it is in Lumberville. On Monday the movie theater closes. On Tuesday it gets hotter. Each day of the week the heat gets worse, and various characters in town try to cope in different ways. By Saturday night, the citizens of Lumberville carry pillows and quilts to the riverbank to share Popsicles under the moon and stars. Eventually, each falls distinctively asleep, and has the same dream of glorious cool rain. The break really comes, and makes the news as well. Lewin’s brushes and Sumi black ink create an honest, if somewhat comic, cast of characters with the objects they use to keep cool, from icebox and hammock, to bathtub and fire escape. Touches of somewhat casually applied watercolors add emotional content to the humor. The yellow-orange surrounding the overloaded mailman, for example, makes the reader sweat; while we can almost feel the cool wetness of the hose’s blue spray. Contrast the hot colors of the jacket and front end-papers with the cool back end-papers and celebration across the cover. 2007, Harcourt, $16.00. Ages 4 to 8.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2007 (Vol. 75, No. 12))
Sun sizzled. Hair frizzled." As the Lumberville heat wave descends, day by day its population does its best to adapt, in this sweet evocation of the time before air conditioning. The movie theater closes, Lottie Mims vacuums in her bathing suit, "[the] Pettibone sisters put their perfume and makeup in the icebox." On the hottest night yet, the community heads to the riverbank with pillows and blankets to seek some relief. Spinelli's simple, declarative text touches on each character in turn, describing how they cope—children, adults and animals, one by one. Lewin's signature illustrations form a series of vignettes against white space, extracting gentle humor from each situation. Dusty yellows and browns dominate her washed-out palette, punctuated by the occasional soothing blue of relative cool. Each quickly drawn figure demonstrates mastery of body language, limp limbs and frazzled hair expressing all. The healing rain comes in a town-wide dream, as joyous splashes of blue ink bathe the citizens of Lumberville in a welcome moisture readers will feel as fully as the characters. As lovely an evocation of one community as one could hope to see. 2007, Harcourt, 32p, $16.00. Category: Picture book. Ages 3 to 8. Starred Review. © 2007 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Kirby Barnett (Kutztown Book Review, Fall 2007)
Lumberville suffers an enormous heat wave. All the residents have various methods to keep cool during the hot weather. The story in this book was excellent. As the week progresses, it simply gets hotter and hotter. The illustrations get hotter as well. Just looking at some of the pages in the book made me sweat. The bright colors and relatable story makes this an excellent book for any class. Category: Fiction. 2007, Harcourt Books, $16.00. Ages 5 to 8.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2008)
Residents of Lumberville try to beat the heat in ways that are surprising and amusing. The story gathers momentum as the temperature rises, climaxing in a late-night community get-together. Lewin uses ink and watercolors dominated by blues, purples, and oranges to depict the blisteringly muggy setting. She outdoes herself in the final spread: what look like actual water droplets splatter her illustrations. Category: Picture Books. 2007, Harcourt, 32pp, 16.00. Ages 4 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.