Apple Picking Day!

by Candice Ransom

Who doesn’t love to go apple picking at the first sign of fall? A sister and brother celebrate autumn with a trip to a local apple orchard in this simple, rhyming Step 1 early reader.
 
The kids bound with glee through the rows of trees, and race against other children to pick the most and the best apples. The story of their day is bright, fun, and full of light action. It’s told in easy-to-follow rhyme, ensuring a successful reading experience.
 
Step 1 Readers feature big type and easy words. Rhymes and rhythmic text paired with picture clues help children decode the story. These books are for children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Food, Family, Spanish Literature, Fiction, School

32 pages, Paperback

First published July 26, 2016

Reviews

[La Coccinelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apple Picking Day! celebrates fall and the apple harvest. A family goes to a local farm to pick apples. There, the kids climb and reach and pick apples, and even meet a new friend. The story is very simple (it's more of a premise than a story, really) but the illustrations are quite cute and kids will probably enjoy reading about this autumn activity.

Being a book for beginning readers, it doesn't have a lot of text. What text there is rhymes. It's not bad, but it's a little sentence-fragmenty in spots. I believe kids absorb what they read. Even if they're not consciously aware of grammar at this stage, they're going to be observing it in the books they read. So I had to take a few points off for that issue.

Otherwise, this is a cute little book about a seasonal activity. I don't know if there are any other books featuring this family doing things together, but if there are, I wouldn't mind having a look.

Quotable moment:

[Joanne Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming easy reader introduces kids to the concept of an orchard on a family outing. light and appropriate with cute illustrations.

[Jamie Wratchford · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Early Reader)

"Apple Picking Day" by Candice Ransom, illustrated by Erika Meza (2016) tells the simple story of a family going to an orchard to pick apples together. After riding the tractor out to the orchard, a brother and sister happily compete to fill their baskets with the best apples. Illustrations are colorful, and rhyming words move the story along, such as "I pick high. You pick low. In our basket, apples go." This book is rated as a Step 1 "Ready to Read" book in the Step into Reading series. However, the words go well beyond the typical sight words of Kindergarten, 1st semester. Until the child becomes more comfortable with sounding out words, this book would best be read aloud, but would easily be an early reader for most first or second graders. Friendly illustrations give reading clues, and rhyming passages about the Fall season and apple picking make this a good "early reader" choice.

[Tami · Rating 5 out of 5]

100 stars. I just want there to be 13000 stars. Do you know where I got the idea of 13000 stars from? I got it from the end of the year. When I gave my favorite teacher pretend $13,000. Ms neema. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Hope. Nice rhymes

[Antoinette Scully · Rating 4 out of 5]

A family goes on a trip to pick apples at a local farm. Really cute. It’s nice to see a Black family just existing outside the need to show them surviving. Good first reader book.

[Joanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easy reader about apple picking.

[frogfairie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick and easy read with the preschool group during our apple-themed week.

[Nichole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story of apple-picking

[L. Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute easy reader welcoming Fall.

Side note: this reminded me of fun visits to a California apple orchard during my childhood.

[Angelica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple and sweet, with a diverse cast. Easy for Au (3) to pick up the words.

[Mama Bearian · Rating 4 out of 5]

With short, simple rhyming text, this book follows a family as they go to apple picking at an apple orchard. It is a great apple-themed book for new readers and a nice intro to apple orchards.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

True level 1 book - A could read most of this book when about 80% done with her reading lessons

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this one for playing preschool apples unit. Cute story - we should get it again around actual apple picking season this year.

[Anita White · Rating 5 out of 5]

good read

This is definitely an easy start for beginner readers and an nice story about picking apples with the family. Plus the illustrations were very cute.

[E & E’s Mama · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book about siblings picking apples at an apple farm, sorting them, and eating different apple snack.

[Erin Robison Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!!!!

[Elisabeth Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun rhyming book about picking apples! It’s easy for a toddler/early Ed child to read!

[Adrianne Rosal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lets go apple picking!! Red ones, green ones and yellow.

[Cierra Simmons · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book talks about how the beginning of the fall season makes people want to go apple picking. These siblings go to their local apple orchard. Great book for beginner readers.

[Emma Borshell · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars

Class read-a-loud. 📖

[Aurelia S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple and sweet, with a diverse cast. Easy for Au (3) to pick up the words.

[brookejeanscozyreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super cute beginners book to practice reading for children! Recommend to ages 3-7 🍎🍂🥧🍃

[Lynnette · Rating 4 out of 5]

decent read aloud, good pictures, I think it would be okay for a beginning reader. overall, nice book.

[Beth Vredenburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the text flow in this early reader as well as the depiction of the whole family together with filled apple baskets.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Synopsis: "Who doesn’t love to go apple picking at the first sign of fall? A sister and brother celebrate autumn with a trip to a local apple orchard in this simple, rhyming Step 1 early reader.

The kids bound with glee through the rows of trees, and race against other children to pick the most and the best apples. The story of their day is bright, fun, and full of light action. It’s told in easy-to-follow rhyme, ensuring a successful reading experience.

Step 1 Readers feature big type and easy words. Rhymes and rhythmic text paired with picture clues help children decode the story. For children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading."

My Review: This was a great level one Reader for the fall. Munchkin and I both enjoyed it, there is a nice storyline about a family adventure, the sentences are short with short words and some nice rhymes. It was fun to read and now all Munchkin talks about it apple picking!

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

When fall is right around the corner--or maybe when we wish it were because of all the oppressive heat of summer--it might be the right time to read this simple book, ideal for youngsters just learning to read. In the story, two siblings visit an apple orchard with their parents. While they are there, not only do they have the chance to pick apples for themselves to bring home for later, but they also can sample many of the foods made from the delicious fruits. Despite the allure of a crisp apple pie with cinnamon of my mom's applesauce, I've always been partial to apples, slightly chilled and sliced. The illustrations show smiling faces, youngsters and adults eager to embrace the out of doors, and fall foliage, all good reasons to take a look at this book.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great beginning reader's title that is just perfect for young readers building up their sight word fluency. Unlike many beginning reader titles that rhyme and theme word sounds this title has an enjoyable rhythm and a well developed interesting plot that young readers will immediately relate to. An added bonus is that the main characters are of color. A great first grade read, both entertaining, relatable and simple enough that beginning readers will have independent success with. Highly recommend.

[Htrain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great starting to read about autumn for children, my daughter loved it and we read it with the pumpkin book for fall.

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 3 kids enjoyed this book. I think that this is a good book for kids going to an apple orchard. this book is also good for beginner readers. I would recommend this book to others.

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rhyming verse. Fall & picking apples at the orchard with the family. I appreciated the illustrations and diverse family of main characters.