A Red Wagon Year

"A Red Wagon Year" is a simple but elegant little book that helps children learn the months of the year by showing the many imaginative ways in which a happy company of six young children, and two dogs, use a trusty red wagon. Kathi Appelt provides simple rhyming text to explain the various uses for the red wagon: "It's a table for the winter birds / A valentine express / A prairie schooner in disguise / A red-eared turtle's nest." The illustrations by Laura McGee Kvasnosky compliment the simple text nicely. One of the nice touches is that the colors never seem to make it to the edge of the black lines without making the child's mistake of going outside the lines. Notice that the border of the cover has iconic representations of each of the twelve months of the year depicted within the book. This book is perfect for young children, ages 2 to 4, giving them an imaginative way of learning the months of the year and appreciating some of the many ways a red wagon can be used (this is by no means a comprehensive examination of the subject).