My harvest basket is filled with ... books?

It’s been a summer of planting and weeding and now it’s time to harvest! As long as the deer don’t get there first! Here are two books that celebrate farming and gardening. 

themes: nature, seasons, friendship

Seasons on the Farm 

by Chelsea Tornetto; illus. by Karen Bunting 

32 pages; ages 5-8

Sleeping Bear Press, 2025  

Barren trees sprout budding leaves. Melting snow drip-drops from eaves….

Beginning with sheep-shearing, this book takes readers through a year on a farm. Seeds are planted, the corn grows tall, farmers cut and bale hay… and eventually the combines rumble down the rows. Using rhyme, and the rhythm of the seasons, this book shares the daily tasks of farm life.

You might think things slow down once “…wood is cut and fires glow. Fields are covered up with snow.” But no. That’s when repairs get done and planning for spring crops. Back matter helps readers understand how important seasonal changes are for farming. And how farmers, after years of observing the seasons, become experts at understanding their local ecology.

What I like about this book: As a gardener who lives in a farming community, I enjoyed the way the seasons unfolded in the book. The language, slow and unhurried, invited me to linger on the page and immerse myself into the lovely artwork. I would have lingered longer, but … I hear the garden calling!

Speaking of gardening, one of the things we have to deal with in my neck of the woods is deer. They love to nibble on the apples, the flowers in the lawn, and just about everything in my garden (when they manage to get in). I have often thought I should write about those pesky deer, but I don’t have to because …

Oh Deer! 

by Phaea Crede; illus. by Erica J. Chen 

32 pages; ages 5-8

Sleeping Bear Press, 2025 

Jasper the Sasquatch lived in the woods. Alone. Other animals made him feel overwhelmed and worn-out.

I can hear you already: “But Sue, this isn’t a STEM book! It is a work of mythological proportions!” You are correct. And yet it pairs well with Seasons on the Farm because, who gets to eat all those yummy crops. Besides us?

Deer, of course! And for an all-alone sasquatch who wants to harvest his first crop of turnips, deer can be quite a problem. Jasper does not want to share his luscious, yummy turnip tops with anyone – and goes to great lengths to protect them. He tries a fence. He tries netting. He even hangs old CD’s and pots and pans.

What I like about this book: I like Jasper’s inventiveness. I also like how this book is about more than protecting turnip greens. Because, at the end he realizes that there are good reasons to share your veggies. And he discovers a way to have both solitude and a few close friends. 

Beyond the Books:

Visit a farm, if you can. Maybe there’s a pumpkin farm or U-pick orchard nearby, or a ranch. If there are no farms near you, visit a community garden where people grow their own veggies. 

Observe the trees and plants around your neighborhood as the season shifts from summer to fall to winter. What changes do you notice? The study of cyclical changes in plants and animals is called “phenology.”

Drop by a farmer’s market or green grocer and buy a turnip with its tops attached. You don’t have to be a deer to eat the greens. You can cook them in a quiche, bake them for crunchy chips, or fry them up with bacon and a bit of spice.

We’ll join Perfect Picture Book Friday once they resume. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copies provided by the publishers.

https://susannahill.com/blog/

Winter is Coming...

On a Flake-Flying Day: Watching Winter's Wonders
by Buffy Silverman
32 pages; ages 4-9
Millbrook Press, 2023

theme: winter, nature, animals

On a feather-fluffing, seed-stuffing, cloud-puffing day…

… leaves rustle and frost glistens. Winter is coming and the animals and plants are getting ready for it. Some change color, some snuggle together, and some take loooong naps.

What I like about this book: The language is spare and lyrical, sometimes rhyming and always evocative of the season. If the words aren’t enough to get you up off the couch and into your jacket and boots (don’t forget a hat!) then the photos will! They are so bold and enticing. And there is back matter with more information about each plant and animal featured in the pages. There’s a few books suggested for further reading, and a glossary so folks reading the book aloud can answer such questions as, “what does molt mean?”

I love Buffy’s books about seasons SO much that I just had to ask her One Question

Me: What do you like best about winter?

Buffy:  My favorite experience in winter is waking up to fresh snow and trekking down to our lake. On a cold, cold morning, the snow squeaks beneath my boots and the air tingles in my nose. At first glance, the snow is an unbroken blanket of white. But soon I start to notice tracks--the heart-shaped hoof prints of a deer, the tail-dragging trail of a deer mouse, a straight line of fox prints across the snow-covered ice, and occasionally the bounding track of a weasel. Although I love the winter stillness, I'm excited to see that some wildlife is out and about. And that's the connection to ON A FLAKE-FLYING DAY--winter is a great time to explore and see what's happening in the natural world!

Beyond the Books:

Before winter comes, what do you notice about the natural world right now? Go outside with a notebook and write down things you notice about trees and plants and birds and animals.

The first day of winter in the northern hemisphere is usually December 21st, though the wintry season often starts long before that. How will you know when winter gets to you?

Be a Winter Explorer. Go outside and give yourself time to notice what you see, hear, smell, feel. Does winter have a taste? 

Check out Buffy's other seasonal books here (fall) and here (spring)

Buffy is a member of #STEAMTeam2023. You can find out more about her at her website. Today we’re joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It’s a wonderful gathering where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copy provided by the publisher.

Celebrating the Days Between Seasons

 

According to the calendar, spring begins March 20. Six weeks from today, shadow or not, regardless of what the groundhog or marmot or armadillo saw in your neck of the woods. For most folks, the Vernal Equinox is the seasonal marker. It’s that point in the Earth’s orbit when the sun sits directly above the equator. It’s the day when hours of daylight equal hours of dark. It’s an important marker for those of us who plant seeds and tend gardens.

And yet for many of us, February 2 is more than Groundhog Day or Candlemas. A cross-quarter day, it’s a midpoint between seasons. And even though we were subjected to polar temperatures (-30F in some places) this week feels like the beginning of a new season. Maybe it’s the fact that days are noticeably longer. Maybe it’s the way the morning light turns everything apricot-colored and sets ice-encrusted twigs and needles to shimmer and glint like precious gems. Sure, we might will most assuredly get more frost and ice and snow and sleet, but something has shifted.

What does an emerging spring look like? Is it the drip of maple sap into a metal bucket? Is it the sound of birds squabbling near the feeder? The gurgle of a stream skipping over icy rocks? The smell of mud?

How do you measure spring? By the time it takes to shovel the driveway? The length of a day? The color of the sky? The sound of geese overhead? And when spring comes, where will X mark the spot? 

Explore Outdoors ~ Goodbye Summer

 

Last week was the official beginning of fall ~ but sometimes it doesn't feel like fall until we're raking the leaves and pulling our sweaters out from the storage bin.

Signs that summer is over:

• flowers going to seed
• petals drying and curling
• leaves blowing in the wind
• woolly bears hiking across the sidewalk
• sun rises later and sets earlier

What are the signs of fall you see in your neighborhood?

Explore Outdoors ~ Watching the Season Change

 

Last week I noticed a splash of red on my lawn (well, the mix of plantain and clovers and grass that pass for a lawn). It was ... gasp! a RED leaf!

Wait! It's too early for fall to come! And then I looked up at the trees. This was not the only leaf shedding its summer greens. The next morning a flock of geese honked loudly as they flew overhead, further punctuating the certain demise of summer.

Over the next two weeks, take a moment to notice what changes are happening in nature around you as Earth tilts towards the autumnal equinox.

• have the daytime and night temperatures changed?
• what do you notice about the bird songs you're hearing?
• what color are the flowers along roadsides and edges of parks?
• does the air smell different?
• check for a new constellation in the sky.
• do you see flocks of birds or butterflies heading south?
  

Earth Day ~ recycling in practice and song

Here in Upstate NY I'm planting seeds for Lemon Queen sunflower.

 I'm planting them indoors so that they'll be ready to transplant into my garden by our last frost date (usually end of May, but given the snow blowing around outside it's hard to say what this year will be like!). My goal this year is to have my sunflowers blooming in time to collect bee counts for the Great Sunflower Project ~ a citizen science project that collects data on pollinators in your garden.

All you need to plant a flower seed is the seed, some potting soil, and a container to put the soil into. I like to recycle containers as pots, so you might find me poking holes into the bottom of cleaned yogurt containers. But sometimes I run out, so I've taken to making seedling pots out of newspapers.

I start with a newspaper. Depending on how big the paper is, I might use a full sheet (it it's my hometown weekly) or just one page (if it's a big paper like the New York Times).

I fold the paper in half length-wise.
 
Then I find a can from the pantry. Soup cans are great for small pots, but for something like a sunflower I want a bit bigger pot. So a can of tomatoes or pasta sauce (not sure how long that's been on the shelf....)

Put the can on the paper so the newspaper extends beyond the can on one end - that will be the bottom of your pot. Then start rolling the can until you've got it all rolled up. The paper should go around three times or so.

Starting at the seam- that's the edge where you stopped rolling - fold the bottom ends in. Keep doing this all the way around until you've got a nice bottom. Then I turn the can over and give it a nice push to squash the base flat.

Take the can out and you've got a seedling pot.
I like to fold the top down because it strengthens the pot, but you don't have to.

Now you've got some seedling pots that can go right into the ground! And you've recycled newspapers. And you're growing plants for the bees.



Speaking of recycling, I'd like to introduce you to Hobo Frog, an advocate for recycling and conservation. Check out this song about Hobo Frog's adventures, written by my back-beyond-the-hayfield neighbor, Trish Engelhard. (really. go to the end of the hayfield, walk down the dirt road, take a left, then a right, go past the pond where Hobo Frog lives and you're practically to her house!)

Books to welcome summer

theme: summer, wildflowers, night

Summer officially begins next week! Here's a fun pop-up book to kick off vacation:

Summer
by David A. Carter
12 pages; ages 3-5
Abrams Appleseed, 2018

The summer day is long and warm...

Each spread in this book features brief text and depicts plants and animals that children might see during the summer.

What I like about this book: It's fun! When you turn the page, a plant or tree pops up (plus the squash that vines from one side of the spread to the other). Birds, animals, fruits, and the occasional feature are labeled, and there is plenty of detail to explore on the page. It almost begs kids to get up and head outside to explore summer. My recommendation: tuck this one in your picnic basket.

 Ultimate Explorer Field Guide: Wildflowers
by Libby Romero
160 pages; ages 8 & up
National Geographic Children's Books, 2018

I love the NGK field guide series. They are sturdy field guides that are just the right size for tucking into the pocket of a back pack. It's not as detailed as the Peterson guide, but it makes up for the lack of entries with vibrant photos and is organized in a fun way that groups flowers by the sorts of questions one might ask. For example, one chapter highlights invasive flowers, another one draws your attention to petal shape.

The front pages introduce wildflowers, how they grow, and where to find them. Front matter is where you'll find a diagram of flower parts, a checklist of things to take along on a flower hike (remember a hand lens!), and some tips on protecting wildflowers.

Flowers are introduced by common name, scientific name, and a paragraph of general information about the species. In addition to a photo, there are often drawings that show basic features to help with plant identification. Plus lots of wildflower watching tips.

Nature's Lullaby Fills the Night
by Dee Leone; illus. by Bali Engel
40 pages; ages 3-7
Sterling, 2018

Moths with powdery wings do soft gently stir the air aloft.
Their flitter-flutter lullabies barely whisper, "Close your eyes."

Spiders spin, crickets sing, tree branches shuuush in the breeze. The lyrical language paired with dark blues of a night world will certainly bring calm after a busy day.

What I like about this book: It's quiet - a lullaby that celebrates the night world. Drifting parachutes sprinkle seeds, night creatures sing, and all around us the mama and papa birds and fish and deer tuck their young in, and snuggle up for a good night's sleep.

Beyond the Book:
Show how summer looks, smells, sounds, and feels. Draw pictures, cut photos from a magazine, and create a collage or map for the season. Add labels where needed.

Go on a listening walk. You can do this during the day or at night, in the city or in the country. Notice the different sounds you hear.

Get to know your wildflower neighbors. The best way to learn who they are is to take a field guide with you, so you can compare petals and leaves of flowers to the descriptions in the guide book. There are some online guides. Here's one, and here's another.

Today we're joining the STEM Friday roundup - and we're also joining others over at Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event in which bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's site. She keeps an ever-growing list of Perfect Picture Books. Review copies from publishers.

Wednesday Explorers Club ~ Mud Season

If you live in the northeast, you know about mud season. Squeezed in between winter and spring, it can run anywhere from the last part of March to the beginning of May.

It sounds boring, but there's so much to do:

• hunt for bird and insect tracks
• watch mud dry
• paint with mud
• take a mud bath
• make mud pies
• measure mud depth 
• test its friction coefficient - mud hockey anyone?

Books that Celebrate the Changing Season

Up here in the northern hemisphere, winter is on its way ~ in some places sooner, in other places later. Here are two wonderful books that celebrate the changing seasons.

themes: nature, seasons, animals

Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter
by Kenard Pak
32 pages; ages 3-6
Henry Holt BYR, 2017

Hello, late autumn afternoon. Hello, leaves.

Two children walk through field and farm and town, as the season changes from fall to winter. They greet animals, trees, and birds as they pass. Cardinals and robins reply that they are ready to fly south. Clouds cover the sky; icicles reply that their job is to decorate the eaves of houses.

What I like about this book: it is a quiet, gentle passage from one season to the next. We see the children walking through different neighborhoods: a hillside, a rural road, the city street. Everywhere they go, they observe how the season is changing, and how the animals and plants are adapting to the coming cold. I admit to saying hello to woolly bears I come across while raking leaves - but unlike the tree frogs, my woolly bears don't seem to say much. Or if they are, I am not attuned to hearing their language.

I like that the children are observing nature in the town and in a city. This reinforces that nature is everywhere, not something "out there". And I like Ken's artwork. It is full of texture and you can "see" the leaves blowing across the page.
 

Winter Dance
by Marion Dane Bauer; illus. by Richard Jones
40 pages; ages 4-7
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017

(A snowflake spins through the air and lands on the nose of a fox.) "Winter is coming," says the fox. "What should I do?"

So fox sets off to find out what other animals do to survive winter. Birds fly south (I can't do that, says fox); turtles dive to the bottom of a pond and dig into the mud.  (Definitely Not For Fox!).

What I like about this book: It's a fun quest, because who doesn't want to know what other people/animals do when snow is on its way. I like seeing the world through the point of view of a fox. And I like the idea of foxes dancing to celebrate winter.

Note from the bug girl (me): As fun as this book is, curious young naturalists will want to further investigate behavior of "woolly caterpillars" they come across. In our area, the woolly caterpillars people see most are "Woolly Bears", larvae of the Isabella moth. Woolly bear caterpillars find a cozy place under leaves or hay mulch where they curl up and hibernate until spring. You can read more about them here and at Naturally Curious. White "woolly" caterpillars (tussock moths) overwinter in the egg stage.

Beyond the Book:

Go on a walk to bid goodbye to fall. What signs of the changing season do you observe? Smell? Feel? Look up - what does the sky look like? Are there lots of leaves? Look down; what does the ground look like? Jot down notes in your field notebook, or draw pictures, or take photos.

In a month, go on another walk along the same route as before. What has changed? Look up - what does the sky look like? Are there lots of leaves? Look down; what does the ground look like? Jot down notes in your field notebook, or draw pictures, or take photos.

Make up a dance to welcome winter. Maybe you want to jump and turn like a fox, leap like a deer, or strut like a turkey. How do the animals in your neighborhood move in winter?

Today we're joining the STEM Friday roundup - and we're also joining others over at Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event in which bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's site. She keeps an ever-growing list of Perfect Picture Books. Review ARCs and copies from the publisher.

First Big Book of How

Little Kids First Big Book of How
by Jill Esbaum
128 pages; ages 4-8
National Geographic Kids, 2016

This book lives up to its name: it has a little bit of everything in it written in small sections in language kids will understand. Want to know how ice cream is made or how microwave ovens work? It's in there. Want to know about bicycle gears? It's in there. Want to learn the best way to make bread moldy? It's in there too.

The section I like best is the one about animals because - there are OCEAN animals in there!
Jellyfish. Octopuses. Humpback whales.

Jellyfish have long, soft tentacles - but beware! They have venom and can shoot that so fast you don't even know you've been stung until it's already happened.

Octopuses are amazing creatures: they have no bones and can squeeze anywhere, and have three hearts. Also, they squirt ink when they're startled or afraid. There's a couple photographs to show where the ink comes out, and what it looks like. And did you know that the smallest octopus can sit on a penny?

The section about humpback whales focuses on how they communicate with each other. They sing. They make bloop-bloop sounds. They groan and moan. They even slap their tails on the surface of the water. All those sounds must mean something - but what?

There's a table of contents listing topics by group: around the home, human body, animals, and more. There's also an index to aid in searches for specific topics. Each section ends with a game and throughout the book there are lots of hands-on investigations. There's even a page of "parent tips" with additional activities - including a recipe for ice cream. 

Today's review is part of the STEM Friday roundup. Drop by STEM Friday blog for more science books and resources. Review copy from publisher.

Welcoming Spring with Little One

Little One
by Jo Weaver
32 pages; ages 3 - 7
Peachtree Publishers, 2016 

theme: togetherness; nature

Big Bear stepped out of her winter den. By her side, half asleep and blinking in the spring sunshine, wobbled a tiny cub.

So begins little cub's journey of discovery - and there is SO MUCH to learn! How to be friends. What to eat in the woods.The best swimming holes. With Big Bear's help, the cub grows in confidence until it's time to head home.

What I like about this book: It is grounded in nature and seasonal change. I like the black-and-white illustrations ~ the contrast of soft charcoal on textured paper. They leave room for the imagination to add color and sound. And I like the aesthetics of the 11-inch square that, once opened, provide lots of room for expansive spreads.

Beyond the book: This book opens with spring, a season that has been pushing its way north somewhat earlier and earlier each year.

Look for signs of spring around your neighborhood. Imagine you are Little One as you head outside. What do you notice? What does the air feel like, and smell like? What do you hear? Spend a few minutes and write down what spring is like.

Explore. Little One explores "far and wide". Winnie-the-Pooh went on a "grand expotition" to find the North Pole. Tuck some provisions in your pocket and go exploring. It might be your back yard or the school playground or a park.

Make a Map. This is a great way to share your exploration with other people. Think about the information you might want to include on your map: the landscape, route of exploration, location of woods or swimming holes, notes about where you saw birds and animals... 

Today's review is part of the STEM Friday roundup. Drop by STEM Friday blog for more science books and resources. We're also joining PPBF (perfect picture book Friday), an event in which bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's site. She keeps an ever-growing list of Perfect Picture Books.  Review copy from publisher.