Four Seasons Make a Year

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From School Library Journal --------------------------- PreSchool-Grade 1-A girl describes the seasons on her family's farm in the northeastern United States: weather; development of vegetables, flowers, trees; birds' activities; chores; and her favorite pursuits. Beginning in the spring, she s a sunflower seed and follows the 's growth throughout the year. The clear and airy text appears on a narrow panel on each spread along with some spot art. The mixed-media illustrations reflect the simplicity of Rockwell's text. Faint collaged bits of The Old Farmer's Almanac behind the text add interest. Halsey uses an inventive device among her more conventional illustrations: she creates a visual flannel-board landscape that appears repeatedly bearing flat, felt-type images (farmhouse, tractor, trees, barn, and ecrow) with appropriate seasonal details. A clear and general introduction to the cyclical formation of the .-Liza Graybill, Worcester Public Library, MA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Read more ( javascript:void(0) ) From Booklist ( /gp/feature.html/?docId=1000027801 ) ---------------------------------------------------- K-Gr. 2. A little girl introduces the four seasons as she observes them at home on the farm. Each season brings changes in the natural world and in her activities. In spring, snow melts, rain falls, a robin sings, and she s a sunflower seed by her back door. In summer, s sprout, trees leaf, her sunflower grows tall, and she swims in the pond. In winter, she feeds the birds the sunflower she had picked in the fall and makes a mental note to more in the spring, neatly completing the circle of her story and the cycle of the seasons. The first-person text is simple and childlike, a tone reflected in the clearly delineated collages. Combining ink drawings with acrylic paintings on torn paper, these illustrations create eye-catching compositions. A nice finishing touch is Rockwell's appended note, which acknowledges that the story takes place in the northeast, where the seasons differ dramatically, and encourages children to look for local changes, which may be more subtle. Carolyn Phelan Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Read more ( javascript:void(0) ) About the Author ---------------- Anne Rockwell is an accled creator of innumerable children's books, including Boats, Fire Engines, Things that Go, Our Earth, Here Comes the Night, and My Preschool. Anne died in April, 2018. Megan Halsey has illustrated several children's books. School Library Journal said of Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night, "Halsey's . . . paper sculptures . . . are full of striking color combinations and intriguing shadow play, [making it] the perfect book to capture and keep the attention of young readers." She collaborated with Anne Rockwell on Two Blue Jays; Becoming Butterflies; One Bean; and Pumpkin Day, Pumpkin Night for Walker & Company. Megan lives in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania. Read more ( javascript:void(0) )