Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted at the Broke and the Bookish blog. Each week a different topic is introduced and it is fun to see what everyone writes each week. Check out their blog for more information.
This week I’m talking about Autumn-themed children’s picture books. There are both Halloween books and books about fall. I love picture books because the illustrations are often so beautiful. I think the illustrations often are as much for the adults as for the children! I also love when the books have poetry or repeating language. Those books are fun to read to children. So these are the books I think many children would enjoy.
Autumn is Here! A Young Readers Picture Book
Author & Illustrator: Heidi Pross Gray
Age Level: 0 to 8 years
Publication date: 2012
34 pages
Summary: Fall books are a wonderful way to explore the seasons with your children. Celebrate the changing of the seasons with the book Autumn is Here! With full color watercolor illustrations and whimsical text, you and your child will explore all the different changes in nature and in family life as autumn approaches. Pick some apples, bake some muffins, watch the squirrels gather nuts, visit the farm and have a bonfire! Warm up some cinnamon tea and cuddle up with your child today to read a wonderful book about fall, Autumn is Here!
One Witch
Author: Lauren Lueck
Illustrator: S.D. Schindler
Age Level: 3 to 8 years
Publication date: 2004
32 pages
Summary: One witch, on a hill, had an empty pot to fill. So what does that one witch do? She goes around to visit all her fiendish friends, naturally; two cats, three scarecrows, four goblins, five vampires, six mummies, seven owls, eight ghosts, nine skeletons, and ten werewolves.
At every stop they contribute ghoulishly tasty ingredients until the witch has enough to make a properly gruesome stew for her party. Then, of course, she must send out her invitations; to the ten werewolves, nine
skeletons, eight ghosts, seven owls, six mummies…
Count up and count down again as one witch gets ready for a fun-filled monster bash. Come along, they’ve got a special surprise waiting just…FOR…YOU!
The Autumn Visitors
Author & Illustrator: Karel Hayes
Age Level: 3 to 8 years
Publication date: 2015
32 pages
Summary: In this fourth and final book in Karel Hayes’s acclaimed Visitors series, the beloved family of bears gets in another round of adventures as they experience the full enjoyment of a New England autumn. First up the country fair–the bears sneak onto the midway after hours to play the games and be thrilled by the rides. Next comes Halloween, for which the bears all cleverly disguise themselves to gather a load of trick-or-treat candy. And finally there’s a big Thanksgiving feast for all the friends of the forest. As always, the bears manage to have all their fun while carefully avoiding detection
Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn
Author & Illustrator: Kenard Pak
Age Level: 4 to 7 years
Publication date: 2016
32 pages
Summary: As trees sway in the cool breeze, blue jays head south, and leaves change their colors, everyone knows–autumn is on its way!
Join a young girl as she takes a walk through forest and town, greeting all the signs of the coming season. In a series of conversations with every flower and creature and gust of wind, she says good-bye to summer and welcomes autumn.
I Love Fall: A Touch and Feel Board Book
Author: Alison Inches
Illustrator: Hiroe Nakata
Age Level: 2 to 4 years
Publication date: 2012
12 pages
Summary: From plump orange pumpkins to crunchy leaves, readers will love all the textures fall has to offer in this delightful touch-and-feel board book.
From woolly scarves and plump orange pumpkins to crunchy leaves and smooth wicker baskets, readers will delight in all the different textures fall has to offer. With simple, rhyming verses and sweet, vibrant illustrations, youngsters can celebrate the season with this touch-and-feel board book that’s perfect for small hands.
Leaf Man
Author & Illustrator: Lois Ehlert
Age Level: 4 to 8 years
Publication date: 2005
40 pages
Summary: Fall has come, the wind is gusting, and Leaf Man is on the move. Is he drifting east, over the marsh and ducks and geese? Or is he heading west, above the orchards, prairie meadows, and spotted cows? No one’s quite sure, but this much is certain: A Leaf Man’s got to go where the wind blows.
With illustrations made from actual fall leaves and die-cut pages on every spread that reveal gorgeous landscape vistas, here is a playful, whimsical, and evocative book that celebrates the natural world and the rich imaginative life of children.
Includes an author’s note and leaf-identifying labels.
Wild Child
Author: Lynn Plourde
Illustrator: Greg Couch
Age Level: 3 to 8 years
Publication date: 2003
32 pages
Summary: In this magical bedtime book, Autumn doesn’t want to sleep. Mother Earth wants to put her wild child, Autumn, to bed. But Autumn isn’t ready. First she wants a song, then a snack, then pj’s, and a kiss. Lynn Plourde’s crisp text crackles like fall leaves and Greg Couch’s illustrations are a color extravaganza. Wild children and their parents will love this scrumptious, satisfying tribute to the wonders of nature and family. Wild Child is the first of four seasonal picture books by Lynn Plourde and Greg Couch.
Room on the Broom
Author: Julia Donaldson
Illustrator: Axel Scheffler
Age Level: 3 to 8 years
Publication date: 2001
32 pages
Award: Blue Peter Book Award for Best Book to Read Aloud (2003)
Summary: The witch and her cat are happily flying through the sky on a broomstick when the wind picks up and blows away the witch’s hat, then her bow, and then her wand! Luckily, three helpful animals find the missing items, and all they want in return is a ride on the broom. But is there room on the broom for so many friends? And when disaster strikes, will they be able to save the witch from a hungry dragon?
Big Pumpkin
Author: Erica Silverman
Illustrator: S.D. Silverman
Age Level: 4 to 8 years
Publication date: 1992
34 pages
Summary: The witch has grown the biggest pumpkin ever, and now she wants to make herself a pumpkin pie for Halloween. But the pumpkin is so big she can’t get it off the vine.
It’s so big the ghost can’t move it, either. Neither can the vampire, nor the mummy. It looks as if there’ll be no pumpkin pie for Halloween, until along comes the bat with an idea to save the day.
How can the tiny bat succeed where bigger and strong spooky creatures have failed? You’ll be surprised!
The Widow’s Broom
Author & Illustrator: Chris Van Allsburg
Age Level: 4 to 7 years
Publication date: 1992
32 pages
Summary: “Witches’ brooms don’t last forever. They grow old, and even the best of them, one day, lose the power of flight…. On very rare occasions, however, a broom can lose its power without warning, and fall, with its passenger, to the earth below … which is just what happened one cold autumn night many years ago.” So begins The Widow’s Broom, the gentle, strangely captivating book by Chris Van Allsburg, who received Caldecott medals for Jumanji and The Polar Express.
The story gets under way when the lonely widow Minna Shaw finds a wounded, sky-fallen witch in her vegetable garden. The witch disappears before dawn, but leaves her old, presumably defunct broom behind. Minna begins to use it around the house and finds that “it was no better or worse than brooms she’d used before.” However, one morning, Minna sees the broom sweeping by itself! Opportunistically, she trains it to chop wood and fetch water.
When the neighbors find out about this “wicked, wicked thing” (posing as an innocent, hardworking broom), they accost the widow and demand that the broom be burned. Are they successful in separating the lonely widow and her diligently sweeping friend? This is a wonderfully suspenseful book to read aloud and young listeners will earnestly hope for the broom’s survival. Still, older, wiser readers, ages 8 and older, will be swept up in the story, too.
Do you have favorite autumn-themed children’s books?
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