Embracing Fall Vibes
September 28, 2023 Comments Off on Embracing Fall Vibes
October is a mere three days away, and I hope you’re welcoming it with a new book…or six. Winter might be the obvious choice for squirreling away with a pile of new reads, but the publishing industry would disagree. September and October are when the biggest bounty of titles release. It’s not just that the winter holidays are right around the corner: the subject of fall itself, both its formidable foliage and its singular spookiness, remains a favorite of authors and illustrators to depict.
You have only to glance at the covers of the two picture books above to remember why fall is such a fan favorite. The colors! The leaves! The mums! The jaunty scarves! The jaunty boots! The scarecrows! Fall is a feast for young and old eyes alike.
In the weeks ahead, I’ll be doing round-ups of spooky-themed picture books and graphic novels. But today is about embracing the season itself, and I’m delighted to share two new favorites. (See past faves here, here, and here.) It’s Fall! (ages 2-6) is arguably the most exuberant, infectious celebration of fall I’ve ever encountered, while Hopefully the Scarecrow (ages 3-6) is a softer, quieter story of a girl’s friendship with a scarecrow, marrying the change in seasons with a love of reading aloud.
It’s Fall!
by Renée Kurilla
Ages 2-6
One look at that cover and it’s love at first sight, am I right? And it only gets better! In It’s Fall!, Renée Kurilla delivers up playful, pitch-perfect rhymes and an ultra-saturated palette of yellows, oranges, and browns as she empowers a group of young children to take us on a romp through the many highlights of fall. It’s all here: apple picking and cider doughnuts, corn mazes and pumpkin carving, candy buckets and leaf piles, giant feasts and giving thanks.
Fuzzy socks and
cozy clothes.
A scarf around
my chilly nose.
Collecting acorns when they drop.
I rake some crunchy leaves and—
Flop!
At no time in the book are adults pictured: this is fall as seen through the eyes of children, a season of greeting, play, and helping one another.
The depiction of trick or treating is a favorite. More whimsical than creepy, it’s a beautiful nod to community, from the diversity of the skin tones to the way one walking child holds the hand of another riding in a wheelchair. Young readers will enjoy making the connection between the child dressed as a ghost and the oversized yellow glasses of the girl on the cover.
Following Halloween, there are more leaves to blow before the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade marks another favorite holiday. Floating friends/ on our TV!/ Giving thanks with family./ Stuffing, gravy, cranberries./ Turkey! Mashed potatoes! Peas!
It’s downright impossible to read from these jubilant spreads and not agree with these children that fall vibes are the best vibes.
Hopefully the Scarecrow
by Michelle Houts; illus. Sara Palacios
Ages 3-7
My heart swells every time I read Hopefully the Scarecrow. Michelle Houts has penned a beautiful ode to growing up, friendship, and the power of stories, while paying homage to that icon of fall that is the scarecrow. (Michelle Houts is no stranger to writing lyrical stories brimming with ambiance. Some of you might remember her novel, Winterfrost, known in our house back in 2014 as The Book That Saved December.)
Hopefully had always known he was “created with loving hands,” but he “hadn’t known his name was Hopefully” until a girl with a side braid places him on a perch in a flowery patch at the edge of a cornfield, saying, “Hopefully, the scarecrow will keep the birds away.” (The story doubles as a lesson in the comma, wink wink.) With this single sentence, Hopefully’s life begins for real.
Every afternoon, the girl sits beside the scarecrow and reads aloud her favorite books. Every afternoon, the scarecrow marvels at tales of kings and dragons, queens and scarecrows, rocky cliffs and rolling seas.
And when she said, “The End,” the scarecrow always felt a little bit taller and braver.
At the end of fall, “just after the beans withered and the cornstalks turned brown,” the girl lifts the scarecrow from his perch and places him in the shed. All winter long, through the dark and solitude, the scarecrow calls upon the “stories nestled deep in the straw beneath his hat to keep him company.”
The cycle continues, with the girl returning the scarecrow to his perch every spring and reading to him through the fall. “As the books got bigger, the stories got scarier, and funnier, and sweeter.” (Because of course they do.)
We grown-ups know where this is going: we watch the same scene playing out with our own little ones, predictable only in their inability to stay little. Eventually, one spring, a different set of hands lifts the scarecrow onto his perch. Though he waits, though he yearns for his friend, the girl does not come. Even through summer’s glare and a “mean wind” that takes his hat away, she does not come. Left behind, the scarecrow again turns to the remembered stories for clues on how to “face monsters,” on how to be brave.
His patience ultimately pays off, for she does return, taller than the last time he saw her. She takes care to patch his clothes and brighten his smile before lifting him into her arms, perch and all, and escorting him to his new home. I won’t give it away, but suffice it to say it’s a surprise fit for a story-loving scarecrow.
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Books published by Little Brown Young Readers and Flamingo Books (a division of Penguin Kids), respectively. All opinions are my own. Links support the beautiful Old Town Books, where I am the children’s buyer (and yes, we ship!).
What to Read to Your Kids 