Amazing Apples

Children's Literature

Handsome painted woodcuts illustrate this hybrid—an apple information book with text that forms acrostics when read downward. The acrostics move readers from the apple in the lunchbox to observations about a spring orchard, blossoms and pollination, cutting an apple crossways to see the "elegant little flower" within, and harvesting. One page extols the many curious and wonderful names of apples, such as Tobias, Wolf River, Esopus Spitzenburg, Prairie Spy, and the good old McIntosh and Golden Delicious. A family of children is shown making dried apples, pressing cider, making applesauce, and sitting on the basement steps counting the apple products, including apple butter and jelly, stored there. Charles Micucci's The Life and Times of the Apple (Orchard, 1992) is more straightforward with statistics and facts, diagrams of the grafting procedure, for instance, timelines, and other "apple-cations." It would make a nice follow-up to this book. But Powell's book stands on its own as a tasty example of how very little text and good illustrations can do so much to delight and inform readers about a subject many take for granted. 2003, Whitman, Ages 4 to 8.
— Susan Hepler, Ph.D.

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 4-This collection of 17 acrostic poems celebrates "Absolutely the/Perfect fruit to/Put in your/Lunchbox and/Eat later." Readers are taken through the seasons, beginning with spring, by following a family and its orchard. Each spread contains one or two poems about leaves, bees, apple varieties, a storage basement, and more. Hand-colored woodblock prints, with figures and objects outlined in bold black lines, extend the poems. A boy and a girl are pictured throughout, along with their parents, two dogs, and a cat. When it comes time to pick and process the fruit, more people, of varying ages and nationalities, are shown. Many children will note that the jars of apple butter and jelly and bushels of fruit shelved in the basement match the numbers named in the accompanying poem. End matter includes a few facts about apples and suggestions for things to do, including having a tasting party, drying the apples, and baking them. A welcome addition for fall units.-Kathleen Simonetta, Indian Trails Public Library District, Wheeling, IL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.