Apples and Pumpkins

This book is still a valuable resource to young mothers and preschool teachers. The fall season is cheerfully portrayed with Anne Rockwell's wonderful illustrations. Librarians have used this little gem for years in their fall story hours.

A simple story about things that a family can do in autumn. Depicts apple picking with the family at an apple farm, pumpkin picking, and carving a jack-o-lantern. The last three pages feature trick or treating with the children dressed as: pirate, ghost, queen and a devil. This is a short story with illustrations going across both pages, bright colors, hand drawn. This book has a low word count and is for very young children, from toddlers through age five or perhaps even six. This is perfect for use by Preschool, Kindergarten teachers and homeschoolers when the teacher wants to read books about the autumn season. Of course it is also good for parents to read to children. I enjoyed that the book was family focused and about a family doing things together, versus just talking about apples and pumpkins.

I read the Big Book version of this with my primary classes, accompanied with the audio, and they really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun just before Halloween. They liked the fall colors. It was pretty and colorful. It is not a "baby" book as it is classified, but is appropriate for kindergarten or first grade.

My 4 year old class really enjoyed this story and the cooking activities we did as follow up. The illustration is beautiful and the prose is appealing to young ears.