The library is such a useful way for me to continue help my daycare children learn about the world around them. I love that I can look for new books online and put them on hold, picking them at my (or my hubby’s) convenience.

I recently picked up a little book, Fall Harvest, that is about Fall and Harvesting….didn’t they pick a great title for this book?


The Story

Each page shows the way some wonderful fruits and vegetables are harvested. Things like pumpkins, apples, wheat, sugar beets, potatoes, corn and cranberries are shown being picked by people as well as being harvested by machines.

There is a limited amount of text on each of the pages. While this book is very informative, it isn’t a story book, but rather more like a text book.

In the fall, people pick pumpkins.
People pick apples.
Machines harvest wheat.


The Illustrations

This book uses photographs, rather than drawings, to help children learn more about Autumn and the foods that are harvested during this season.

Each two page spread has the photo on the left side page and the very large black text on an all white right side page.

The photos are wonderful and show people of different ages and ethnicity’s harvesting some of the fruits and vegetables of Fall. One page shows a woman and two children picking pumpkins at a pumpkin patch while in another photo is a man picking apples from a tree. One page that I particularly like is of an older couple standing in a corn field with ears of corn in their hands.

Some of the photos are of large equipment that does harvesting. These photos show what type of machinery can be used to harvest and of course these pages are of real interest to Jake (3 year old) as he points out the ”big trucks”.
The back of this book has Words to Know, Read More and Internet Sites sections to help children learn more about harvesting and how things are grown. The Words to Know section gives the definition of each of the fruits and vegetables that are in this book and does so in very simple and easy to understand terms.


My Feelings

This isn’t a book that I would have picked out at the library as one I wanted to read to my daycare, but I am glad that I had put a hold on it.

It is informative, educational and the use of photographs seemed to really interest my little daycare group. The photos are crisp and clear and add interest to this little book.

I really like that this book gave us an opportunity to talk not only about Fall, but also about foods and the way they are harvested. The kids were surprised to see potatoes laying on the ground after being unearthed.

We’ve read this book several times and each time the children love singing “beet, beet sugar beet, beet” with me. I have no idea where the heck I got that but it adds to the children’s desire to have this book read to them. I am amazed at how interested they are in how our foods are grown and will expand on that theme because of their interest.


Nuts & Bolts

Fall Harvest was written by Gail Saunders-Smith and was published in 1998 by Pebble Books, an imprint of Capstone Press. Photo credits go to Chuck Haney, Kay Shaw, John Marshall, Alice Prescott, Martha McBride, Dennis MacDonald, Doris Brookes, Herbert L. Stormont, Kimberly Burnham and Ken Weidenbach.

This 24 page book is recommended for children 4-8 years old. My little daycare group enjoyed the pictures and the discussion that we had about the photos, so I think that children as young as a mature 2 could enjoy and learn from Fall Harvest.

ISBN: 1560655879


This review is part of the Resurrecting the Oldies Write-Off that is sponsored by msmorvay Check out her profile page for more entries. Thanks Rae.

Recommended: Yes