I’m a sucker for children’s books. When it comes to books that you can connect to the seasonal changes around us, I’m even more susceptible. Working in a nature center does that to a person.
Yesterday it was sleeting. Again. This year, sleet is definitely the festive harbinger of late fall. Hurray for sleet! As the seasons change around here, I like to read some books about that change to celebrate.
Tell Me a Season by Mary McKenna Siddals is my favorite book about seasonal changes. It’s perfect for the two to four year old set. It works for older kids too, of course. In simple pictures of a house and a garden, the book tells the story of the colors that are present in each season. For older children, making pictures like this would be an excellent homeschooling project. Create a picture of a house and a garden, then dress it up as the seasons change.
When the Wind Stops by Charlotte Zolotow is a lovely book, getting my award for best bedtime story that incorporates seasonal change. It begins with a little boy asking his mother about where the wind goes when it stops blowing. Through his questions and her answers, he learns that nothing stops – it just changes or moves on to someplace else. This is the perfect, quiet book to talk about the life cycles and the seasons.
Listen! Listen! by Phyllis Gershator and Allison Jay focuses on the sounds of the seasons. It moves through the seasons, doing for sounds what Tell Me A Season does for colors. It’s a good book for the preschool and kindergarten age and beyond.
I’ll just throw one in for those who love late fall and the Thanksgiving season – In November, by Cynthia Rylant. November is such an underrated month, especially here where it is the month of sleet and bare trees. Somehow, she makes all of this seem warm, cozy, and lovely. Any book that can do that for November is a favorite of mine.
Image Credit: Gressiak