As the leaves turn colour, days grow shorter and the chill is felt in the air, it is a natural time to think about all those wonderful childhood stories about fall. A wide selection of picture books are available at your local library to celebrate this time of year with your preschool or primary age child.
For some great rhyming stories, one of my favourites is I Know it's Autumn by Eileen Spinelli, illustrated by Nancy Hayashi. Spinelli's beautiful verse, "When we go picking apples for Mom's apple pie, and noisy geese fly south across the evening sky..." is accompanied by Hayashi's illustrations that create a story you can actually feel and smell.
Yellow Moon, Apple Moon written by Pamela Porter, and illustrated by Matt James is a bedtime story and song. A young child in red sleepers wishes the moon a goodnight as she inventories all the familiar things around her. "Here's my house, my swing, my tree. Here's my window, my bed, and me"
Red are the Apples by Marc Harshman and Cheryl Ryan introduces all the colours of an autumn harvest. A great story to blend all the colours of the things we need to grow and harvest the farmer's bounty. Illustrations by Wade Zahares bring the text to life.
Lauren Thompson's Mouse's First Fall highlights the joy of leaves in the fall. Mouse and friend, Minka follow all the colours and shapes of leaves and all the fun ways leaves can be piled up, skipped, swished and jumped in! Illustrations are by Buket Erdogan.
Dappled Apples by Jan Carr celebrates all things fall. The leaves, the apples, the pumpkins and fun of Halloween are all highlighted by the paper-collage artwork of illustrator Dorothy Donohue.
For some longer stories about leaves and fall, I Love Leaf Trouble by Jonathan Emmett, illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church. Pip Squirrel is terrified that the tree he calls home is falling apart. Lying underneath the tree Pip notices the changing colours of the leaves and ...oh no! A leaf is falling! Pip tries to catch it, but there's another one, and another...how will he manage to save the tree? With the help of friend, Blossom, Pip scurries up the tree and tries unsuccessfully to stick the leaves back onto the branches. It takes Mom Squirrel to explain why a tree needs to lose its leaves and calm our little squirrel.
Strega Nona's Harvest brings back characters lovingly created by Tomie dePaola. Strega Nona and Big Anthony have different ideas when it comes to planting the perfect garden.Lots of fun ensues when one of the gardens gets completely out of control.dePaola is one of the all-time favourite artist-authors for children.
Celebrate the colour red in Hooray for Fall by Kazuo Iwamura. From the three little red sweaters Mama Squirrel knits for her children to the leaves, berries, persimmons, and sunsets everything is suddenly red. Iwamura creatures are illustrated to perfection in this book.
Parents and educators who are thinking of fall themes for their classes will find any of these books a wonderful addition to circle time. So, fall into your local library to pick up some great stories about this fabulous season!
A Good Read is a column by Tri-City librarians that is published every Wednesday. This column was written by Irene Jakse, a librarian with the Port Moody Public Library.
