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October 2017: Apples and Pumpkins (Master List and General Discussion)
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Pumpkins: A Story for a Field
Pumpkin Cat by Anne Mortimer
Too Many Pumpkins
Big Pumpkin
Pumpkin Trouble
The Very Best Pumpkin
The Pumpkin Fair
Spin to Sea
Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie
From Seed to Pumpkin
The Pumpkin Book
The Biggest Pumpkin Ever
Pumpkin Soup: A Picture Book*
How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?*
*Previously chosen in the PBC, though it's been many years (and we have many new members since then) so they are certainly up for selection this time if members would like to vote for them.
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From Apple Trees to Cider, Please!
Apples, Apples! by Yoon
Apples, Apples Everywhere!: Learning about Apple Harvests
Max Mo Go Apple Picking
Bring Me Some Apples and I'll Make You a Pie: A Story About Edna Lewis
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Apples and Pumpkins
Applesauce Season
The Apple Cake
The Apple Tree a Cherokee Story (dual language, English/Cherokee, the author's great grandmother, I believe, was forced to take part in the Trail of Tears )
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Pumpkin Pumpkin
The Pumpkin Blanket
I had a few more on the list, but Kathryn has already posted them. I will say though that I absolutely and totally recommend Spin to Sea (especially since this book is actually based on a real Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, harvest ritual and that the illustrator was only something like fourteen or so when this book was published).
Snow Pumpkin
The Bumpy Little Pumpkin
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Where Is the Apple Pie?
All for Pie, Pie for All
The Apple Pie Tree
How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow?
Pumpkin Countdown (this book shows approx. 20 different varieties of pumpkin--I never knew there were so many!)
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Spin to Sea
How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?
Pumpkin Soup: A Picture Book
Applesauce Season
The Apple Cake
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Where Is the Apple Pie?
All for Pie, Pie for All
The Apple Pie Tree
How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow?
Pumpkin Countdown
How to Make an Apple Pie and See the WorldHow Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?
The Apple Cake
Applesauce Season
From Seed to Pumpkin
Both Pumpkin Soup and How Many Seeds are awesome, I would totally read them again. I don't see my favorite pumpkin book Pumpkin Jack in the suggestions, sorry to be too late to the party. I would also have suggested Sophie's Squash even though the main character is not strictly speaking a pumpkin ...So, I realize it's last minute, but we have a really good list of pumpkin books here, and also a list around the harvest theme from a previous Picture Book Club discussion. Feel free to peruse these and also add any titles that are missing. See also Books about Fall/Autumn for Toddlers and Picture Books about Apples.
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Thanks for adding to our master list! :-) I've already read some of the books selected for this month so I'll be pulling from the master list for myself and my boys, too, and will try to post reviews here of my favorites.
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How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World
Applesauce Season
The Apple Cake
How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?
From Seed to Pumpkin
Pumpkin Pumpkin
I have not had a chance to come to Goodreads in a couple of weeks and so I missed the nominations and voting...but I am excited for our selections (and I see several other titles that sound interesting to me!) I probably shouldn't include this because it is not a picture book (although it does have a lot of illustrations) but a lovely short novel in verse that I just completed that I really loved: Applesauce Weather. It's just such a sweet story and could probably be read in under an hour. (My 9 year old read it to me over the course of 4 days...but it's pretty fast.)
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An absolute gem of a picture book, Sandy Tharp-Thee's The Apple Tree: A Cherokee Story is a sweet and tender dual language English/Cherokee tale of friendship, patience and encouragement, and where, unlike in Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree, it is not the apple tree who offers up his bounty, his fruit again and again to a rather unappreciative, at least in my humble opinion little boy, but a little Cherokee boy who not only plants an apple tree, but then offers his special tree encouragement and support when the apple tree becomes impatient and sad at how slowly it has been growing, even going so far as to suspend a red apple from the tree's branches in order to make the apple tree believe that it has finally produced its first fruit (and this little ploy, although I guess some might consider it as not being truthful, really not only does the trick so to speak, in so far that the apple tree is made happy and encouraged, it offers the apple to the Cherokee boy who even though he was the one who had of course placed the apple on the tree, gratefully and yes hungrily accepts his arborous friend's offering, a two way gifting therefore). And when finally, both the apple tree and the little boy had grown large and strong, and the former was in its glory, producing a myriad of pink blossoms in the springtime and abundant, sweet yellow apples come harvest, the apple tree still remembers and appreciates his first apple, the red apple that "the Creator made red" (that the little boy used for a gift to the tree, a gift of love and encouragement, of tenderness). Most highly recommended, and the accompanying Cherokee text (in Cherokee syllabics is an added bonus, especially as the author, as Sandy Tharp-Thee, also provides historical information on the Cherokee syllabary, a website link for additional information, and last but definitely not least, and for me personally, oh so much appreciated, a legend and an explanation on how the syllabary works, on how to figure out the syllabics and their sounds).
As to Marlena Campbell-Hodson's accompanying illustrations, they are as evocative and as magical as the author's sweetly evocative text, presenting themselves as natural, colourful, realistically beautiful, and above all, showing the little Cherokee boy as simple a contemporary lad wearing jeans, a t-shirt and running shoes, not ever thankfully portraying him as donning feathers or other accoutrements to make him appear as "Indian" (which is also echoed by the glowing and tender narrative, namely that the unnamed boy is Cherokee, is described as b being Cherokee, but that he is first and foremost, that he is above all simply a little boy planting an apple tree, making The Apple Tree: A Cherokee Story a perfect book for showing that Native Americans are not and should not be seen as some exotic "other"but simply people, human beings, acting and reacting like humans do, and in this case, with the little boy using his imagination and encouragement to help the tree he has planted, to provide happiness and support, and thinking outside the proverbial box so to speak with his little red apple subterfuge).
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I highly recommend it.
Haha. I checked out what I thought was the club read The Apple Cake but was actually Apple Cake: A Recipe for Love. Here's my review:Ida is brilliant and beautiful, but her nose is always stuck in a book. She ignores Alfonso. So Alfonso determines to make her a wonderful apple cake. The story itself is fairly simple...Alfonso gathers the ingredients (including three wishes: one bitter and two sweet) and makes the cake. But the illustrations are really the star of this show and portray Alfonso's imaginative, magical, whimsical steps in making the cake.
The recipe for apple cake is included at the back and it sounds yummy! I may try to make it this week.
Unfortunately, my library system doesn't have the club read.
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Children's Books
Books mentioned in this topic
From Apple Trees to Cider, Please! (other topics)The Apple Cake (other topics)
Apple Cake: A Recipe for Love (other topics)
The Apple Tree: A Cherokee Story (other topics)
Applesauce Weather (other topics)
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Please VOTE for the six books you would most like to read by choosing from our official nominations (messages 3-7) and posting in a comment below. Votes will be accepted until Monday, September 25th. Thank you! :-)