PB14:14 - Day 10: Hooray for Fall!

The book I am reviewing for day 10 of the Picture Book 14:14 challenge is a sweet book I found at our local library. They only have about 40 picture books in English, some old, some new, but I was lucky to find this gem.

Title: Hooray for Fall!

Author/Illustrator: Kazuo Iwamura

Year/Publisher:  English translation 2009 in USA, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
by North-South Book, Inc., an imprint of NordSüd Verlag AG, Switzerland (original first pub. in Japan, 1984 under the title Makkana Seetaa)

Word Count: approx. 475

Top 10 Element(s): theme

Summary: Three little squirrels return home after a day of gathering nuts to find their mother busy knitting. They are curious about what she is making but are told they'll have to wait until she's finished. Mama knits through the night, and the next morning three bright red sweaters are ready to be worn. The children go outside to play. They come across several animals preparing (birds planning their trip south before winter, bear eating large quantity of persimmons to hold him over during the upcoming hibernation), and they see many signs of autumn.

I simply adore this book. The illustrations are so sweet. The information about autumn is woven into the story beautifully. There is a pattern of things being red-- red mushrooms, red leaves, red berries, red sun-- and they often reflect back to themselves.

Examples:

they compare a group of red mushrooms to their family

(after seeing the berries have turned from green to red) "Winter is coming so they changed their clothes, just like us."

after seeing red leaves they realize things change color because winter is approaching "Everything turns red, just like our sweaters!"

But my favorite part is when they see the setting sun. "The sky is on fire!" Mack shouted. And sure enough up in the sky was a great red glow. "Let's climb up to the treetop and see what it is," said Mack. Then when you turn the page there is a beautiful two-page spread. On the left side the children are on the trunk and branches of a very tall tree gazing at the giant, glowing red sun which is front and center on the right page.

If you can get your hands on this, either at the library or at the bookstore, open it up and read it. Or purchase it at Amazon. I think you'll enjoy it.

To see more day 10 book reviews by other PB14:14 participants here's the link:


http://christiewrightwild.blogspot.de/2015/02/day-10-mostly-monsterly-by-tammi-sauer.html