Book Bunch: It's All about the Weather

On the Same Day in March: A Tour of the World’s Weather
Written by Marilyn Singer
Illustrated by Frane Lessac
HarperCollins, 2000

On the Same Day in March is a fine nonfiction picture book that could be used to introduce a unit on weather in the early elementary grades. It’s also an excellent book for connecting science and geography. Both the author and illustrator take readers to various locales around the world on one day of one particular month of the year to show how people living in different places don’t all experience the same kind of weather at the same time.

Singer takes us on a tour of cities, areas of countries, and continents situated in all the hemispheres of the globe. Readers travel to the Arctic; Alberta, Canada; Paris, France; New York City; the Texas Panhandle; the Nile Valley; a Louisiana bayou; Xian, China; Darjeeling, India; Central Thailand; Dakar, Senegal; Barbados; Northern Kenya, the Amazon Basin in Brazil; Darwin, Australia; Patagonia, Argentina; and Antarctica. Lessac’s endpapers label these locales on a hand-painted map of the world.

Here’s a partial weather report for this “same day in March”:

• There’s a tiny twister in Texas.
• “Fog threads through the temples” in the Nile Valley.
• Hailstones fall on a hillside in Darjeeling.
• In Thailand, it’s hot…hot…hot.
• The rains leave behind a river in Kenya.
• It’s raining, too, in the Amazon Basin.
• While in Patagonia, autumn “shears the clouds like a flock of sheep.”

The text printed on each page of the book is brief—usually just a sentence or two. The illustrations extend the text. They show how animals and people in different habitats experience this particular weather day in March where they reside. Folks in Paris sit outside a café or sell produce in an open market. People swim in the ocean and play cricket at the beach in Barbados. A family in Darwin pulls their boat out of the water and boards up their windows before the willy-willies (cyclones) arrive.

Singer includes A Note from the Author in the back matter of the book.

Click here to read an excerpt from the book. http://www.marilynsinger.net/march.htm

From Open Wide, Look Inside
Teaching Geography with Children’s Literature: On the Same Day in March
http://blog.richmond.edu/openwidelookinside/archives/2246

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Here are two books of poems that could be used to integrate poetry with a unit on weather:

Weather: Poems for All Seasons
Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Illustrated by Melanie Hall
HarperCollins, 1994

This is a Level 3 I Can Read Book. It’s excellent for using in primary grades. The twenty-nine poems are organized in five sections: Sun, Wind and Clouds, Rain and Fog, Snow and Ice, Weather Together. It contains works by some of our finest children’s poets—including David McCord, Lilian Moore, Valerie Worth, J. Patrick Lewis, Barbara Juster Esbensen—as well as poems by Carl Sandburg and Langston Hughes.

Here are some excerpts from the SUN section to give you a flavor of the book:

No-Sweater Sun, the first poem in the collection, captures the excitement children feel when spring has finally arrived.

No-Sweater Sun
by Beverly McLoughland

Your arms feel new as growing grass
The first No-Sweater sun,
Your legs feel light as rising air
You have to run—
And turn a thousand cartwheels round
And sing—
So dizzy with the giddy sun
Of spring.

J. Patrick Lewis personifies the “star” of our solar system in Mister Sun—who “puts his gold slippers on” at dawn. He also switches off the “globe lamplight” and pulls “down the shades of night.”

Isabel Joslin Glaser’s summer sun sports a “lion face” at noon and “shakes out/its orangy mane”—and its searing “tongue scorches leaves.” Valerie Worth’s sun “is a leaping fire” that can form “warm yellow squares/on the floor” where a cat can sun itself.

The SUN section is typical of the rest of the book. It includes short poems that are easy to read. Some poems are straightforward rhythmic, rhyming poems of a lighthearted nature; some poems are free verse and do not rhyme; some poems have lovely imagery.

Click here to browse inside this book. http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780064441919

Seed Sower, Hat Thrower: Poems about Weather
Written by Laura Purdie Salas
Illustrated with photographs
Capstone Press, 2008

Laura Salas wrote poems for this collection in a variety of forms: limerick, cinquain, haiku, concrete, and acrostic. The photographs included in the book served as Laura’s inspiration for her poems. For example: Laura was inspired to write a list poem for the picture of a child flying a kite across an expanse of a bright blue sky dotted with puffs of white clouds:

Wind Is An…

Expert blower
Seed sower
Sailboat go-er
Hat thrower
And, best of all, a
Kite tow-er

Seed Thrower, Hat Thrower: Poems about Weather was published by Capstone for the educational market. It contains poems about fog, arid lands, rain, icicles, lightning, wind, a tornado, and clouds. In the back matter of this book, the author includes a glossary—as well as recommendations for other poetry books about weather and the seasons. In addition, there’s a section titled The Language of Poetry in which the author defines poetic terms—such as alliteration, repetition, free verse, and cinquain.

Edited to Add:

Click here to read more poems from Laura’s book at her blog.

Click here to read another excerpt from the book and for links to a couple of classroom activities at Laura’s Web site.

Picture Book Reviews: Winter Trees, Christmas Trees

WINTER TREES
Written by Carole Gerber
Illustrated by Leslie Evans
Charlesbridge, 2008

This is a treasure of a nonfiction book written in verse. The rhyming text introduces young children to the different shapes of the crowns of deciduous trees once they are bare of leaves—

the egg shape of the maple tree;
the taller oval of the beech…
The V formation of the birch;
the yellow poplar, wide and high;
the spreading structure of the oak,
its branches reaching toward the sky.

Gerber also writes about the bark and buds and other characteristics of different trees: The American beech’s bark is smooth and silver-gray; the yellow poplar’s is furrowed. The sugar maple’s buds are stout and have clawlike tips; the poplar’s reddish twigs hold puffy buds. She writes, too, about evergreens and how they keep their needles throughout the year. The back matter includes three paragraphs with further information about trees and small illustrations of the seven trees written about in the book.

The spare illustrations created from linoleum block print, watercolor, and collage, are a fine complement to the text. The pictures are set mostly against a plain white or pale blue background. Evans focuses the reader’s eye on the shapes of the trees, the leaves, the buds, the bark—whatever is the main point of each page of text. This helps to enhance the information that is conveyed through Gerber’s verse.

Winter Trees would make a great read-aloud for children in Pre-K through the early elementary grades. It’s an excellent book for young naturalists and one that encourages kids to observe nature more closely.

Click here to view illustrations from Winter Trees.

More Blog Reviews of Winter Trees

7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #93: Featuring Leslie Evans (This post includes images of a number of illustrations from the book.)

From Check It Out: Nonfiction Monday: Winter Trees

CHRISTMAS TREE FARM
Written by Ann Purmell
Illustrated by Jill Weber
Holiday House, 2006

This is a “realistic fiction” picture book that tells all about the planting, pruning, and care of evergreens on a farm where Christmas trees are raised as the cash crop. The story is narrated by a young boy who explains how his Grandpa and the rest of his family go about their work on the farm throughout the year. The boy also informs readers about the measuring and tagging of trees before they are cut down and brought to the Tree Hut to be sold. Christmas Tree Farm is also a book about a family working together. The story closes with a slew of relatives coming to Grandpa’s and Grandma’s house for a tree trimming party. Weber’s gouache and acrylic naïve-style illustrations are colorful and an appropriate complement to a story narrated by a young boy.

The back matter of the book includes information under the following headings: Christmas Tree Lore, Christmas Tree Facts, and a Christmas Tree Time Line—as well as a two-page spread with labeled illustrations of different types of evergreen trees: Colorado Blue Spruce, Fraser Fir, Virginia Pine, Scotch Pine, Norway Spruce, White Pine, Balsam Fir, and Douglas Fir.

Click here for the teacher packet for Christmas Tree Farm.

HENRY BEAR’S CHRISTMAS
Written & illustrated by David McPhail
Atheneum, 2003

Henry Bear enjoys everything about Christmas: the presents, the jelly cakes Momma Bear always bakes, the warmth and good cheer of the holiday season. But what Henry loves most of all is having a fine, full, beautifully decorated Christmas tree and good friends all around. This story tells about Henry’s search for a Christmas tree. When Henry and his best friend Stanley find the perfect tree at the church, the vicar tells them that it’s not for sale. The tree is going to be raffled off. So what does Henry Bear do? Why, he spends all his Christmas tree money on raffle tickets. He feels certain he’ll win the tree. Unfortunately, on the day of the raffle drawing, Henry Bear isn’t present when his winning number is picked. He’s at the doughnut shop warming himself with a steaming mug of cocoa. Henry ends up having to settle for a brown-needled, scrawny tree that no one wants. After looking over the tree more carefully, Henry observes: “I see that it is not such a bad little tree after all.” Christmas ends up a happy occasion for Henry, Stanley, and Momma Bear. In the book’s final illustration, we see Momma Bear, Stanley, and Henry celebrating the holiday by a glowing fire. This book is another charmer from the talented McPhail.

NIGHT TREE
Written by Eve Bunting
Illustrated by Ted Rand

This is a cozy story about a family (father, mother, son, and daughter) going out on Christmas Eve to decorate a tree in the forest with holiday treats for wild animals: apples and tangerines and balls of sunflower seeds pressed with millet and honey. Beneath the tree the family scatters shelled nuts, breadcrumbs, and pieces of apple for “the little creatures who can’t climb very well.” When the family is finished, they spread out a blanket, open a thermos of hot chocolate, sing songs, and admire their handiwork. This story is told from the perspective of the son who conveys the excitement he feels sharing this annual tradition with his family in the forest and the wonder of this special night as he lies awake in bed. Ted Rand’s realistic watercolor illustrations transport us to a winter forest. The royal blue sky aglow with a full moon adds warmth to the scenery and the changing perspectives help bring the story alive on the pages.

APPLE TREE CHRISTMAS
Written & illustrated by Trinka Hakes Noble

Published nearly a quarter century ago, Apple Tree Christmas is still in print today. It’s a book I used to read aloud to my elementary students every December.

The book is set on a farm in the late 19th century. This is a warm family story about a mother, father, and two young daughters named Katrina and Josie. It’s also about an apple tree overgrown with wild grape vines that stood near their barn. It was a special tree to the girls. Josie loved to sit on the swing her father had fashioned from the tree’s vines—and Katrina, the artist, sat on a limb that made a perfect drawing board. “She called it her studio.”

One night a ferocious blizzard howls through the farm. Katrina and Josie learn to their dismay that their special apple tree has been felled by the storm. In the days before Christmas, Katrina finds it difficult to concentrate on knitting papa’s presents. She’s disturbed by the sound of her father’s sawing and hacking away at her beloved tree. But what Katrina and Josie don’t know is that Papa isn’t just chopping firewood—he’s making presents for his daughters from the vines and limbs of the tree. On Christmas morning, this is what the girls awake to find:

There, hanging from the beam, was Josie’s swing, the very same swing from the apple tree. Sitting on the swing was a little rag doll that mama had made.

Near the swing was a drawing board made from the very same limb that had been Katrina’s studio. On the drawing board were real charcoal paper and three sticks of willow charcoal.

Noble’s homey, period-style art suit this story of country life in bygone times.

Click here to see illustrations from Apple Tree Christmas at Noble’s website.

More Picture Books about Christmas Trees

Click here to read my review of A City Christmas Tree.

Click here to read my reviews of Merry Christmas, Merry Crow and Mr. Willoughby's Christmas Tree at Blue Rose Girls.



Click here to read my review of Wendell and Florence Minor’s Christmas Tree!.

Autumn Book Bunch: Leaves, Leaves, Leaves!

OLIVER FINDS HIS WAY
Written by Phyllis Root
Illustrated by Christopher Denise
Candlewick Press, 2002

Oliver Finds His Way is an exceptional picture book for students in preschool and kindergarten. Phyllis Root’s simple storyline about a little bear who finds himself lost near the edge of the woods, panics, and then thinks of a way to solve his problem, will resonate with young children. Christopher Denise’s illustrations, done in pastels and charcoal, provide a soft autumnal backdrop for Root’s spare text. They capture the flavor of the season and closeness of this loving “bear” family.

One fall day, while his parents are doing chores outside, Oliver chases an autumn leaf that is blown by the wind. He follows the big yellow leaf…

down the hill,
around a clumpy bush,
under a tree,
and all the way
to the end of the woods.

Soon enough, Oliver discovers that he is lost. He tries to find his way back home--but the tree he runs to is not the twisty one he had passed before and the bush he runs to is not the clumpy bush he had seen earlier. Oliver’s afraid. He begins to cry…and cry….and cry. But he soon realizes that he’s still lost. He rubs his nose and thinks until he gets an idea. Then he roars and roars and roars--louder and louder and louder--until he hears Mama and Papa roaring back. Oliver is then able to listen to their roars and find his way home.

Note: When I was an elementary librarian, I used the art in Oliver Finds His Way to introduce my youngest students to the concept of setting in picture books. The children could tell just from looking at the endpapers that the story was set out in the country in autumn. Click here to view an illustration from the book.

FLETCHER AND THE FALLING LEAVES
Written by Julia Rawlinson
Illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke
Greenwillow, 2006

It’s autumn. Fletcher, a young fox, notices that the world around him is changing. Every morning things seem “just a little bit different.”

The rich green of the forest was turning to a dusty gold, and the soft, swishing
sound of summer was fading to a crinkly whisper.

Fletcher becomes worried when his favorite tree begins to look dry and brown. He thinks the tree is sick and expresses concern to his mother. His mother explains that it’s “only autumn” and not to worry. Fletcher runs outside, pats his tree, and tells it that it will feel better soon.

Of course, the leaves on the tree continue to turn brown and fall from the branches. Fletcher catches a falling leaf and reattaches it to his tree--but the wind shakes the leaf loose again.

The next day, a strong wind blows through the forest, and the tree’s leaves are set flying. Fletcher’s upset when he sees a squirrel taking leaves for its nest and a porcupine using the fallen leaves to keep itself warm. Try as he might, Fletcher cannot save his tree from the inevitable. Finally, he clutches the last leaf as it flutters from the tree and takes it home--where he tucks it into a little bed of its own.

The following morning, Fletcher is awed by the sight of his tree, which is now hung with thousands of icicles shimmering in the early morning light. He wonders, though, if the tree is okay and asks: “But are you all right?” Fletcher is relieved when a breeze shivers the branches and the tree makes “a sound like laughter…” The little fox then hugs his tree and returns to his den for a “nice, warm breakfast.”

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves has a longer, more lyrical text than Oliver Finds His Way. Beeke’s soft-edged pastel illustrations capture the tone and setting of this comforting story and deftly convey the change of seasons as autumn turns to winter.

THE LITTLE YELLOW LEAF
Written & illustrated by Carin Berger
Greenwillow, 2008

Carin Berger, who did the “bold” and brilliant collage illustrations for Jack Prelutsky’s Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant, hits a high note again with her art in The Little Yellow Leaf. Her illustrations in this book are inventive and striking. Berger even used composition and graph paper as the backdrop for some of her pictures. Her spare illustrations with changing perspectives and her lovely lyrical text partner well in this tale about finding strength in friendship.

The main character of this little allegory is a “Little Yellow Leaf.” It’s autumn. The LYL clings to a branch of “a great oak tree.” “I’m not ready yet, thought the Little Yellow Leaf as a riot of fiery leaves chased and swirled round the tree.” No, the leaf isn’t ready to leave its home in the tree--even as the afternoon sun beckons--even…

as apples grew musky,
pumpkins heavy,
and flocks of geese
took wing.

Even when LYL sees that the other leaves have “gathered into heaps, crackly dry, where children played,” it isn’t willing to join them. And it still it isn’t ready to leave its home when a harvest moon blooms in an “amber” sky.

LYL holds fast to its branch through a long, cold night when snow falls. It holds fast as days pass. It looks and looks at the tree--but sees only the “shimmer of snow.” LYL is all alone. At least that’s what it thinks…until one day it spies a “scarlet flash” high up in the tree. It has a comrade! Both had been hesitant to cast off for the unknown. The Little Yellow Leaf and the Scarlet Leaf take courage in each other…set themselves free and soar.

Into the waiting wind they danced…
off and away and away and away.
Together.

I highly recommend these three titles, which will make fine autumn read-alouds.