Three Black boys forge friendship in Kiese Laymon’s dazzling picture-book debut.

On this episode of Fully Booked, celebrated novelist and memoirist Kiese Laymon joins us to discuss City Summer, Country Summer, illustrated by Alexis Franklin (Kokila, April 1). Kirkus calls Laymon’s bold, beautiful picture-book debut—about the friendship that develops between three Black boys visiting their respective elders in rural Mississippi—“a heartfelt, elegantly wrought, and triumphant tribute to Black boy kinship.”

Here’s a bit more from our starred review:“There’s nothing like a visit to your grandmother’s house—whether you’re from up North like New York, who comes down to stay with his Mama Lara, or a local like Country, who with his little brother in tow is visiting his Grandmama. On the sunny porches of their grandmothers’ neighboring houses and in the cool shadows of the surrounding woods, hesitation becomes tenderness, anxiety becomes laughter, and difference becomes safeness.…Laymon has set a high bar for himself and cleared it easily. A melody of lyrical prose and a rhythm of community ring out.”

Laymon is a Black Southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. He is the author of the novel Long Division, the essay collection How To Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, and the Kirkus Prize finalist Heavy: An American Memoir. Named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 2022, he is the Moody Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University.

In a joyful conversation, Laymon and I discuss kinship, difference, safeness, and the emotional connections between characters in City Summer, Country Summer. We hail Alexis Franklin’s lush and lustrous illustrations, explore the significance of the garden in the story, and as an extended metaphor for communities of care. Laymon explains the multifaceted significance of the pink shotgun house in the book; and we acknowledge the importance of remembering, repeating, and representing histories of struggle and success in works of art. We wrap with a poignant story from the beginning of his book tour.

Then editors Laura Simeon, Mahnaz Dar, John McMurtrie, and Laurie Muchnick name their top picks in books for the week.

EDITORS’ PICKS:

Every Borrowed Beat by Erin Stewart (Delacorte)

The Reel Wish by Yamile Saied Méndez (Tu Books)

Change the Recipe: Because You Can’t Build a Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs by José Andrés with Richard Wolffe (Ecco/HarperCollins)

Sky Daddy by Kate Folk (Random House)

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

A Moon in All Things by Jennifer Comeau

The Complete Down and Out in Seattle and Tacoma Series by Christopher Stockwell

The Call by Catherine Schieffelin

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.