Marc Harshman and Cheryl Ryan harvest a garden's fall bounty in Red Are the Apples. Like the title, each quatrain begins with a color: "Yellow's the corn/ on stalks growing high,/ shading the pumpkins/ and reaching the sky." Wade Zahares's piquant pastels, with colors that vibrate against one another and offbeat perspectives, are a feast for the eyes. ( Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Fall is in the air and it is time to harvest the garden vegetables in this simple rhyming book. The text is enhanced with deep, rich illustrations done in bright pastels. The reader follows the child in the story as the illustration viewpoint changes from one angle to another. One stanza builds upon another when he travels through the garden and learns about the foods to be harvested. Brown soil, white beans, yellow corn, orange pumpkins, green leaves, crimson beets and purple eggplants are richly described while the child pulls his wagon through the garden. A scarecrow, the blue sky, red apples, and golden cider, which is made on the boy's farm, round out the text. When all is said and done, the child and his family reap the benefits of their own planting and give thanks for what they have. This book would enrich a curriculum that is teaching about growing things and also the teaching of colors, sizes and shapes of what is grown in a garden. 2001, Gulliver Books/Harcourt, $16.00. Ages 3 to 7. Reviewer: Nancy Garhan Attebury
PreS-Gr 2-A boy with his wagon, two hens, and a black cat stroll through the plentiful fields of a farm in autumn. Together they inspect lima beans, corn, pumpkins, beets, eggplants, and apples, which are all ready for harvest. Written in rhyme, the story speaks of canning and cider making. The poetry is a bit bumpy at times. "Purple are the eggplants,/shiny and smooth,/nestled near Scarecrow,/who's missing a tooth." Or, "Black is the hat/on Scarecrow's head./It points to the sky/and the crows overhead." Although the illustrations are well designed, double-page spreads throughout, and the autumn colors are bright, the corn is tan, almost brown, where the text reads, "Yellow's the corn-." The scarecrow's hat, described as black, appears in the picture as a dark green. Overall, the illustrations done in pastels on paper portray the feeling of fall. The book ends on a pleasant note, with an expression of thanks for the abundance of harvest time. However, the detail needed in a good picture book is lacking here.-Karen Land, Greenport Public School, NY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
