By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: October 5, 2009
The weather is starting to cool, autumn is officially here. Leaves are beginning to change their color, and some have already started to softly tumble to the ground. This means it’s time to switch your flip-flops for your Ugg-Boots, order chili instead of gazpacho, and refresh your book selection with some wonderfully heart-warming tales. Grab a blanket and cozy up with one of these books:
by Jonathan Emmett (Author), Caroline Jayne Church (Illustrator)
Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: The Chicken House (August 1, 2009)
What to expect: Autumn, Leaves, Squirrels
Leaf Trouble is deliciously descriptive and wonderfully worded with sensational sounds. It offers up a simple explanation of why the leaves fall and when they will come back. When Pip the squirrel awakens one morning to discover that the leaves on the tree are no longer green and are steadily falling to the ground, he and his sister decide they will try to put all of the leaves back on the tree. The richly-colored collage illustrations, which were created dimensionally using inks and an array of patterns and textures, offer a delightfully warm tone to this charming story that will leave readers glowing inside. A beautiful story!
Publisher’s synopsis: When he wakes up one morning to find that his home tree is changing, the little squirrel is scared! Why are all the leaves falling off?
Quickly he corrals his sister and they gather up the leaves in colorful pawfuls. But try as they may to stick them back on the branches, it’s hopeless: Yellow, orange, red, and brown, all the leaves keep falling down!
It’s only when their wise mama explains what happens in autumn that the two little squirrels understand the seasons are changing. Green leaves will sprout anew in spring!
Add this book to your collection: Leaf Trouble
You may also like this book by the same author: Ruby in her Own Time
More books about falling leaves: Leaves by David Ezra Stein, Why Do Leaves Change Color? by Betsy Maestro, Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson, and Leaves, Leaves, Leaves by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace.
by Cathryn Falwell
Reading level: Ages 3-7
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: Greenwillow Books (August 25, 2009)
What to expect: Rhyme, Gardens, Plants, Vegetables, Brothers and Sisters
The author of Mystery Vine, Cathryn Falwell, takes readers on a tour through a vegetable garden and through the seasons. As each vegetable ripens for the picking, there is one mystery vine that has the children wondering. When the weather cools down and fall arrives, their mystery vine gives them a surprise, pumpkins! Provided at the back of the book are yummy pumpkin recipes, along with some fun gardening activities that would make for great school or home projects. Excellent rhythm and charming rhyme the whole way through, combined with pleasant collage illustrations, make this book a wonderful read-aloud. Delectable and very satisfying!
Big and small.
Lots of pumpkins!
Short and tall.
Pumpkin breads
and pies to eat.
Jack-o’-lanterns!
Trick or treat!“
Publisher’s synopsis: As the seasons go by, the mystery vine grows and grows and grows. Now, finally, it is autumn, and the mystery vine is no longer a mystery.
Hello, pumpkins!
This is the season for jack-o’-lanterns, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin seeds—ready for toasting and munching, and for saving and planting come spring.
Add this book to your collection: Mystery Vine
More books about Pumpkins: Pumpkin Town! by Katy McKy, and The Runaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis.
Stay tuned for our Halloween and Thanksgiving book picks!