As the leaves begin to fall, it’s time to prepare your child for the coming seasonal changes. These books can help you explore and explain the changes your child will see as the year heads into autumn.
Some children become disturbed by the changes that come along with fall. The days become shorter and colder. Plants die and trees lose their leaves. The garden dies and flowers disappear. Their favorite shirt or shorts go into the drawer. As a parent, you know that children grow so fast that they may never wear that princess shirt or dinosaur shorts again. So, ease your child into this new season with some books that give both of you the chance to explore this lovely time of year.
Leaves
In Leaves, David Ezra Stein explores a young bear’s first fall. The little bear is having a great summer until he notices that a leaf has fallen from a tree. He asks the tree if there is something wrong. He tries to stick the dry leaves back on the branches, but discovers that it doesn’t really work. He watches as more and more leaves fall and loses all hope of “fixing” the trees around him. He doesn’t understand and worries until he becomes too tired to stay up. When he becomes sleepy, he finds a hole and fills it with the leaves that had already fallen. He crawls into the hole and goes to sleep. He sleeps through the winter and when he emerges, he sees that the trees are growing new leaves just in time for spring.
Stein uses simple, colorful drawings to show the bear and his concern with the leaves. But his worry is tempered for the young reader with the bright yellow leaves and sun. Stein shows the bears worry and sadness at the change of season. The colors mute more and more, until the bear goes into hibernation and the page is almost completely white. As the season turns, the yellow begins to emerge again as spring breaks forth. The final picture shows the bear celebrating under a bright spring sun with newly emerging leaves.
This book quietly reassures your child that while things change, there is a natural cycle to the world. Yes, leaves fall, but they also grow again. Yes, we go to sleep, but we will wake. It’s also a great chance to begin to discuss how some animals make it through the winter by hibernating.
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves
This delightful romp through the traditional “There Was An Old Lady” rhyme gives children a new perspective on the story. IN this book, the old lady swallows leaves. Why? “I don’t know why she swallowed the leaves. Perhaps she’ll sneeze.” This refrain ends every stanza of this growing poem. The Old Woman swallows leaves, a shirt, a pumpkin, a pole, pants and a rope. Each time she adds another item, the reader gets another clue to the final object. In the end, the woman does indeed sneeze, giving her garden a brand new-scarecrow.
This book is especially fun to read with children who are already familiar with the traditional story. They will enjoy the changes to the poem and the far more positive outcome. But children who have never heard the poem can enjoy it as well.
As you go through the book, stop along the way and ask your child what he thinks the Old Woman will make. If he doesn’t know, encourage him to guess. You can model the behavior by making wildly unrealistic guesses like “Maybe she’s going to make a submarine?” Laugh along with your child as you both guess what the Old Woman will make.
Awesome Autumn
In Awesome Autumn, author Bruce Goldstone looks at the changes that take place between summer and fall. He discusses how clothes change, and children go from wearing shorts and t-shirts to pants and jackets. Goldstone points out the changes that take place in the trees and goes into a detailed, but child-friendly explanation of the change. For example, he explains that trees use chlorophyll to make food during the spring and summer. The substance is green and makes the leaves green when they have plenty. But with the shorter days, the tree doesn’t need to make the chemical anymore and so it stops. When the leaf loses the green chemical, it turns red, orange, yellow or brown.
This book is a great way for a preschooler to explore the wide range of changes he sees around him. Goldstone illustrates his book with photographs, so the child sees real items, rather than drawings. Because many of the words are paired with pictures, early readers can learn to identify names of trees and match them to their leaves.
Mouse’s First Fall
Little Mouse and his big sister Minka are exploring the world of Autumn for the first time. Together the pair start to compare colors and shapes of leaves. Then they stack the leaves and finally create large piles of leaves to run and jump in. When Mouse loses Minka in a pile of leaves, he looks and looks until he finally finds his sister and they celebrate Fall together.
The mice in the book explore a wide range of sensory experiences from the sound the leaves make to the color and crunchy texture. The author, Lauren Thompson, also introduces the reader to simple numbers and ordering. The Illustrator, Bukat Erdogan, uses bright primary colors to introduce readers to the beautiful colors of autumn.
This book helps little ones explore the changing season in a gentle, loving way. Reminding them that they are not going through these changes alone and that they can always count on a friend, or a loving parent, by their side.