If your child can’t wait for autumn’s early chill, they might “fall” for
Apple Farmer Annie
Author: Monica Wellington
Illustrator: Monica Wellington
Publisher: Puffin Books, Penguin Young Readers Group
Recommended Age Range: 3 to 7
Website
In Monica Wellington’s signature style, Apple Farmer Annie introduces the apple in a simply delicious way. Beginning at her orchard, in the fall, children are introduced to some of this fruit’s best-known recipes, including applesauce, cake, and muffins. A trip to sell her apples at a farmer’s market rounds out her day – and the story. Wonderful!
Fall Leaves
Author: Loretta Holland
Illustrator: Elly MacKay
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Recommended Age Range: 4 to 8
With a wonderful play on words, this beautiful time of year is illustrated, and explained, in such a simple and stunning way, it truly leaves Fall Leaves indelibly etched in your mind.
How many seeds in a pumpkin?
Author: Margaret McNamara
Illustrator: G. Brian Karas
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade Books, an Imprint of Random House Children’s Books
Recommended Age Range: 3 to 7
Website
How many seeds in a pumpkin? is a charming story about a little boy who does not like being the smallest in his class. Through wonderful, and surprising, facts about pumpkins, the author shows us – and the class –that it’s what’s inside that counts. After hearing this story, your child may bring home the smallest pumpkin in the pumpkin patch:)
Awards: 2008 Christopher Award, Books for Young People, Ages 6-8
In November
Author: Cynthia Rylant
Illustrator: Jill Kastner
Publisher: Harcourt, Inc.
Recommended Age Range: 4 to 8
Website
In November is a stunning book that portrays the beauty of this month and all the change it ushers in. From blankets of snow to the bare branches of trees; birds flying south to families gathering to give thanks, this book truly captures the essence of November.
Leaf Man
Author: Lois Ehlert
Illustrator: Lois Ehlert
Publisher: Harcourt, Inc.
Recommended Age Range: 4 to 8
As only Lois Ehlert can do, Leaf Man takes nature and turns it into something…amazing (but only when the wind blows). You and your child will follow Leaf Man on an adventure that takes him – and you – by ducks and geese, through fields and orchards, even above lakes and mountains. With the inside cover full of numerous leaves, and their names, this book is not only entertaining, but educational. Your child will, no doubt, be pulling you outside to gather leaves for an inspired creation.
Awards: Child Magazine’s Best Children’s Book Awards 2005; Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Winner (Picture Book), 2006; 2005 National Outdoor Book Award Winner; A Junior Library Guild Selection
Pick a Circle, Gather Squares: A Fall Harvest of Shapes
Author: Felicia Sanzari Chernesky
Illustrator: Susan Swan
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company
Recommended Age Range: 4 to 7
A fall harvest turns out to be the perfect way to learn about shapes. A clever book for those who love this time of year and all it brings.
Awards: Goldfinch Award 2015-2016
the apple orchard riddle
Author: Margaret McNamara
Illustrator: G. Brian Karas
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade Books, an Imprint of Random House Children’s Books
Recommended Age Range: 4 to 8
When Mr. Tiffin’s class visits an apple orchard it’s far from a regular field trip; this time, it comes with a riddle. While answers abound as the students pick apples, visit a cider press, and explore the orchard’s many treasures, no one seems to be able to solve the riddle; that is, until one little girl discovers the answer right in the palm of her hand. A wonderful and “apeeling” read. ☺
Awards: American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture “Book of the Year,” 2015; Children’s Book Committee at Bank Street College Children’s Book of the Year, 2014
Wonderfall
Author: Michael Hall
Illustrator: Michael Hall
Publisher: Greenwillow Books, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Recommended Age Range: 4 to 8
Website