An Autumn Celebration

Today's storytime was all about the delights of Autumn, changing leaves, cooler temperatures and "the orange smells of Fall." Today, in San Diego, it was sunny dry and over 90 degrees! My storytime audience loved the books and rhymes about Fall anyway. In fact, we did most of the finger plays and songs twice. One boy even wanted to do an action rhyme about pumpkins three times! There were more than 20 children in attendance - so different from my early storytimes on the base where I may only have three or four.

 We sang as we counted flannel leaves, and our fingers became five furry squirrels and five little leaves. We even participated in an informal poll: for Halloween, did you carve a happy pumpkin or a scary one?  One little girl had three carved pumpkins at her house and so skewed the results somewhat!  The books, with their lovely illustrations in the bright, rich colors of Autumn, were lovely:

When Autumn Falls by Kelli Nidey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book, with its rhythmic text and wonderfully bright illustrations, introduces young readers to all that falls in Autumn.  Leaves, football players, the temperature, the sun. The three dimensional paper collage pictures are vibrant and detailed and the kids loved finding the hidden images that can be found throughout this book.  Birds in trees, a dogs eye peeking out from under a pile of leaves, the back of a child running behind a tree.  There were many opportunities for interaction with my storytime audience, as we counted crows, pumpkins, and students off to school.  My audience loved this book.

I Know It's Autumn by Eileen Spinelli
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a beautifully illustrated book about a family enjoying the delights of Autumn.  In rhyming text the reader learns about getting out jackets, and the joy of pumpkin muffins for breakfast; picking apples and raking leaves.  A wonderful book to introduce all the joys of Autumn.

In November by Cynthia Rylant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Cynthia Rylant does a beautiful job "explaining" November in this book.  The text is gentle and rich with description. (For example, "The trees are standing al sticks and bones.")  The illustrations are perfectly matched with the text and are soft and gentle as well. We counted the cats "piled up in the corners of barns" (6) and the dogs lying before the fire (2) The foods of November with their "orange small" and all the warmth of Thanksgiving are captured between the pages of this book.  A very  special tribute to a very special time of year.

The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a charming story about a little yellow leaf who does not react well to change.  When all the other leaves are falling, this one holds on tight and states that he is not ready...even when snow falls and he is lonely and cold.  Finally, he spots another hold out, a scarlet leaf, and together they let go and go soaring off into the sky.  The simple illustrations are beautiful and bright and the text contains rich vocabulary - the afternoon sun "beckoned and teased" and "flocks of geese took wing." My storytime audience could identify with the little leaf's fear and loneliness, and rejoiced when the two leaves went soaring off together.  Lovely story.

I'll be encoring this story time on Thursday at the public library so I'm glad I like the stories and songs, rhymes, etc.  Next week, we are off for Veteran's Day and then in two weeks I will be presenting a Thanksgiving storytime at the base, complete with a multicultural potluck feast.  Stay tuned.