Fall Books

Obviously we are reading some fall books for our preschool time but I love fall and can't stop there. Here are some others we've enjoyed this year and last.

The Apple Pie that Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson

I love the sweet vintage style illustrations, Lucy loves the repetitive poem (think The House that Jack Built, another favorite of hers). Sweet and fun but be prepared to hide it after a day or two :-)

Bear Has a Story to Tell

When I saw the author of A Sick Day for Amos McGee had a new book out, I did the unthinkable, I bought a brand new hardcover copy without even having read it! I live on the edge, I know. But it worked out. This book is great. Beautiful simply illustrations, a gentle sweet story about a bear who is ready to sleep for the winter but first wants to tell a story. But his friends are all preparing for winter too so will he be able to tell his stoyr? A great example of a living book because in very few words it expresses so much. This one is another good book for those November, not quite winter days.

In November by Cynthia Rylant

I'm not sure Cynthia Rylant has written a bad book, at least not of the ones I've read so far. More verbose than the previous two books listed her, the poetic language and beautiful illustrations still keep little one's attention fairly well.

Hurry Hurry Mary Dear by N.M. Bodecker

I'm torn about recommending this book. It's a great poem about Mary preparing for winter by picking apples, dilling pickles, etc. The illustrations are fun and I think Lucy was only Jonah's age when we first checked it out of the library and she loved finding the little black cat on every page. Jonah is currently obsessed with signing cat  (so much so that he kept rubbing food all over his face signing cat at the dinner table tonight while he was looking for ours) so I'm pretty sure he'll love it too and I'm excited to read it to them both. So why the question? Well, it has a bit of that husbands/men = dolts attitude that is already so prevalent in our society. And I feel like maybe that should bother me here like it does other places, but honestly, it doesn't. I like this book too much (as does Craig I might add). But I've included the disclaimer anyway. 

The Tale of Timmy Tiptoess by Beatrix Potter

We love our Beatrix Potter around here except that Lucy is awfully opinionated about which ones she wants and doesn't want to read. It's hard to get her to any new ones. We started off with the short ones like Fierce Bad Bunny and Miss Moppet and have progress towards her longer stories. We aren't quite to Pigling Bland stage yet but are reading a lot about the bunnies (including Peter, Benjamin and the Flopsies) as well as Jemima. But I was able to sneak in The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes recently for a change of pace (once we read a story one time, it's normally excepted. Don't try too hard to understand her, I've heard three is a phase :-)

Anyway, back to Timmy Tiptoes. It isn't one of her more popular stories and I wouldn't say it was my favorite Beatrix Potter story but that's like saying As You Like It isn't my favorite piece of Shakespeare's writing. Even so, it's still head and shoulder's about most other things. And now when we go on fall hikes and hear a bird, we'll say "Whose been digging up my nuts" and both start laughing so I still wholeheartedly recommend it.

Do you have any fall favorites you can to share? I promise I won't hog them from the library.