Tell Me a Season

by Mary McKenna Siddals, Petra Mathers (Illustrator)

“This small and simple concept book describes the colors in a spring morning, a summer day, a fall evening, and a winter night. Four specific scenes lead up to each panoramic double-page spread that features a farmhouse with a girl and a boy, a cat and a dog. Siddals’s appropriately straightforward and economical text is brought to life by Mather’s folksy watercolors. . . . It is well done without being overdone, and the size is just right.” —School Library Journal

“Cheerful yet elegant, spare yet satisfying, compact yet enveloping: these are hardly the words usually associated with simple concept books for the youngest children. But words and paintings combine to create a season book that surprises to the end. . . . Both author and artist capture the seasons with poetic intensity and wonder, finishing after ‘Winter night’ with the simplest yet pleasing conclusion: ‘Good night.’”—ALA Booklist

“A book of simple but deeply gratifying pleasures.” —Publishers Weekly

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

26 pages, Hardcover

First published March 17, 1997

Reviews

[Agnė · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very simple and sweet concept book about different seasons, colors, and time of day with beautiful illustrations (I LOVE Petra Mathers' vibrant colors!).

[Grant Thomas]

Can you tell me the seasons that the book describes? Do you know what a summer day is like? Or a fall afternoon, or an early winter morning? What about Spring?

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has great illustrations and talks about the four different seasons. The pictures go along with the seasons and the colors that the story is talking about with each season. It tells what kind of colors you might see during each season.

[Kee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brown mud, brown trees, sky of gray… Opening to the Tell me a Season prepares readers to the different colors that paint different seasons. Simplistic sober portraits of seasons conjures the lyrical Four Seasons of Vivaldi in its ability to contrast the differences of the seasons.

Vividness of the pictures complement the lithe words that dance on our tongue makes this visually and orally compelling book for our readers. And yet, the complexities of the seasons is well represented in the details from our illustrator.

Great book in introducing the concept of seasons to young reader from pre-K and above.

[Brooklyn Schamens]

I think this book is good for having the students learn about different seasons, but also it has good describing words. I like the illustrations as well. I think I would use this book in the future if I teacher younger children, because it is a simple, yet fun book for them.

[Madimeier]

This book is all about the different seasons. There are pictures of the different seasons and short words and phrases that describe the seasons. This book would be very good for young students because they would be able to read and understand it easily.

[Asho · Rating 3 out of 5]

My two-year-old enjoyed this book. It's a neat concept: it describes and illustrates the colors of a few things and then puts them together into a seasonal scene. It's not always the colors you would expect for a particular season, either.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for really young kids. Simple, short, and wonderful. Holly likes it.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for toddlers.

[Stephanie Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for young children. It simply describes the seasons for young children to understand. I think Kindergarden and 1st grade.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Waaaaay too small to use during a storytime, but perfect size to fit in a small person's hands. Demonstrated colors in conjunction with seasons.