Favorite Autumn Picture Books

This Autumn, we've enjoyed quite a collection of picture books that reflect on the wonders of the Season. I've already blogged about Christopher's Harvest Time. This might be our favorite from this Fall. We just loved the gentle and sweet illustrations. I was seriously reluctant to give it back to the library. We've also enjoyed Tasha Tudor's Pumpkin Moonshine also because of the illustrations. Like Elsa Beskow, Tasha Tudor has a talent for gentle and lovely illustrations. For the past two months, we've relied heavily on Poetry for Young People: Robert Frost for copywork. This book has the poems of Robert Frost divided up by the four seasons. So, he copied many poems from the Autumn section. This is definitely one for our bookshelf as I had to give this one back to the library as well. I think Luke really enjoyed the poems too. I recently checked out Harvest Home by Jane Yolen again. I love this book! I think I enjoyed this book more than Luke, but I was completely taken in with the beautiful pictures by Greg Shed. I could almost feel the hot sun on me as I imagined myself harvesting wheat. I looked on Amazon and it appears to be out of print. What a bummer! Also, I read the Autumn Story by Jill Barklem to the boys this week. It is part of the Brambly Hedge collection and several of these books seem to be out of print as well. The story was cute, but the pictures are very reminiscent of Beatrix Potter and I know that will appeal to a lot of you. Another book we've enjoyed is Over the River and through the Wood. This book is the famous poem written by Lydia Maria Child and this book is illustrated with woodcuts which evokes that wonderful winter outdoors-y feeling. Luke liked this because he also used this poem in copywork and then memorized it. I hear him humming and singing this song a lot! We also enjoyed Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. This big, over-sized book is just wonderful! There are so many colorful Fall leaves in transition. It's fun to see how a single leaf can contain so much color. There are tons of maple of leaves to enjoy up close. Finally, we recently read Raccoon Moon and well, raccoons just seem to embody Autumn. This picture book has beautiful artwork and well, we needed to read about some animals we see here in our back yard!

Now, it's time to gather a collection of treasure in the form of Advent, Christmas and Winter picture books. I know there will be more favorites to add to the list!