What can you find in an autumn garden? A harvest of bright colors, and lots to explore!
Inviting rhymes and the antics of a boy and his pets promise a full day of fun for young readers as they pick out all the luscious fruits and vegetables in a colorful fall garden.
Marc Harshman is the poet laureate of West Virginia, appointed by Governor Earl Ray Tomblin in May 2012. His poems have appeared in such publications as Shenandoah, The Georgia Review, The Progressive, Appalachian Heritage, Bateau, and Fourteen Hills. Other poems have been anthologized by Kent State University, the University of Iowa, University of Georgia, and the University of Arizona.
His eleven children's books include ONLY ONE, a Reading Rainbow review title on PBS TV and THE STORM, a Junior Library Guild selection and Smithsonian Notable Book Parent's Choice Award recipient. Booklist has called this same title "a knowing book that will speak to all children about self-image and hard-won success."
Mr. Harshman was honored in 1994 by receiving the Ezra Jack Keats/ Kerlan Collection Fellowship from the University of Minnesota for research of Scandinavian myth and folklore. He was also named the West Virginia State English Teacher of the Year by the West Virginia English Language Arts Council in 1995. More recently, he was named the recipient of the WV Arts Commission Fellowship in Poetry for the year 2000 and the Fellowship in Children's Literature for 2008. His children's titles have been published in Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Danish, and Swedish.
Marc is fondly known by many as a storyteller who served for over twenty years as a judge for the WV Liar's Contest held at the Vandalia Gathering in Charleston, WV. He has also served as an instructor for the historic Appalachian Writer's Workshop at the Hindman Settlement School in Hindman, KY.
Marc holds degrees from Bethany College, Yale Divinity School, and the University of Pittsburgh. He recently received an honorary doctorate from Bethany College in recognition of his life's work.
In honor of West Virginia's Sesquicentennial, Marc was commissioned by the Wheeling National Heritage Area to write a poem celebrating this event. This poem, "A Song for West Virginia," was presented in both Charleston and Wheeling as part of the day-long festivities held that day.
3.5 STARS Not my favorite style of illustrations but I enjoyed the story, nice poetry and I liked the use of colors as the focus of the autumn harvest--there's the obvious red apples but they even include colors like white for beans, brown for the soil and gold for the apple cider.
Red are the Apples is a picture book in poetry form that takes the reader on a journey through the harvest season on a family farm as seen from a young boys perspective. Wade Zahares's illustrations are full page and beg the reader to take a closer look to see all that's going on. This is a great read-aloud for primary students and has lots of great vocabulary (crimson, nestled, harvest, demanding). For students with limited background knowledge about harvesting, rural areas, and farms, it would be a great way to start a discussion or introduce students to somethings that take place on a farm/orchard (cider making, canning, harvesting.)
I understand that the illustrations were created with pastels, but I am NOT a fan. It looks like 90s computer graphics. I also really don't like the page with the apple rhyme: "Red are the apples felled by the wind. They'll be cider for sale, bottled and tinned." I know the poetic form is restrictive, but "there'll be cider for sale" seems to make more sense, even though I understand that it's supposed to indicate that the apples will become apple cider.
Pleasant little autumn book, but don't let the title deceive you. It is NOT about apples! Figured that out when I pulled it as a potential for my apple unit. Oh, well. Maybe I'll come back to it in autumn. It provides color-saturated illustrations and descriptions of the autumn harvest and rural life that I found quite enjoyable. Although the scarecrow was a touch creepy for my taste...
I love reading this book to my preschoolers leading up to fall! The book introduces a variety of colors in relation to a farm in fall harvesting the crops.
Illustrations by Wade Zahares were made using pastels on paper. Fall on the farm. The reader can explore colors with PreK. The point from where each reader looks into the illustrations change by drawing. That might make a nice question, "Where are you looking from?"
Because this title is perpetually on request at the library every fall, I was expecting a lot more from it. It's a color book that focuses on different things that are ready for harvest in a garden, but even though it gives some unconventional and educational examples, there's no story and no strong sense of atmosphere. The illustrations also leave something to be desired, particularly with how the people look.
This book has vivid and unusual illustrations with a bit of an old timey look. Quite interesting and eye catching and great for the reader to ask the listeners about what they see. The book could be read for a fall/apple PreSchool Storytime. The text is set up in a rhyming format-could ask the listeners for the rhyming words.
I read this and I just felt good! It intertwines the themes of colors, nature, autumn, harvest, abundance and thanksgiving, all with lush illustrations and rhyming text.
A simple colorful rhyming book that presents colors through the richness of autumn harvest. I think this would be a great book to read with little ones before visiting an apple orchard/cider mill.
A bit more in depth than your typical harvest book, meaning it features more than just apples and pumpkins. Full page paintings with interesting perspective.
Beautiful, vibrant illustrations. Easy, rhyming text that introduces colors. This could be a fun book for a preschool storytime on farms, gardens, autumn, or colors.