It's Fall!

Glaser, Linda
Swan, Susan
k-2
Information Picture book
The Millbrook Press, 2001

This book is an information book all about fall. It starts out with a little boy walking through the leaves. He describes them as being Red, Yellow, Orange, Gold, and Brown. They are crunchy and crackly. He sees the geese migrating and they are flying in a V shape. Then the monarch butterflies pass him and they are going south because it is getting colder. Then he talks about animals and hibernation. Ladybugs hid in pine cones, worms tunnel in the earth. Animals are going crazy everywhere gathering food for the winter months. The flowers and weeds are drying out. He collects pumpkin seeds and roasts them to eat after carving a pumpkin. They dig holes in the garden to pant tulips. Then suddenly, all the trees are bare and he continues to play in the leaves.

I thought that this was a good book for younger children. It talks about a variety of things that happen in the fall like the animals hibernating, and what they are looking for to eat. Where the geese and butterflies are going. I think that the author also does a good job describing these things in a way that younger children can understand them. The illustrator used paper cutouts to create the images. The images look like a big collage. There are lots of pictures of animals which I think would really keep younger childrens attention because most kids love animals and like learning about them. One of the pictures is a huge brown tree with two little boys playing in it. The tree is bare with no leaves. All the leaves are lying on the ground. They are yellow, green, orange and brown. Another thing I liked about this book was at the end there is a Nature Activities section. It is two pages full of activities to do with nature in the fall.

I think that I would use this in my classroom. It would be a good book to introduce fall with when learning about the seasons. Also you could take the activities in the back and do them. You could make leaf rubbings, dry out flowers, compare seed pods that you find. There are so many activities in the book that would be great for children to learn about fall.