My Autumn Book

PreS-Gr 2—A little girl senses the coming of autumn from changes in the air and sky, and proceeds to investigate, collect, and record details about the new season. She uses a camera and notebook to capture an array of natural images, including a spider spinning a web, a caterpillar in a cocoon, and geese flying south. She also celebrates many different trees that are transforming, identifying a dogwood, oak, ash, maple, and aspen as they "whisper and sway in the breeze/shaking loose acorns and batches of leaves." The girl ultimately creates an Autumn Book, with photographs and decorated pages, so she can remember these details when winter comes. The gentle, rhyming text is paired with soft yet rich, textured illustrations in this final installment of Yee's seasonal series. The abundance of white space helps the brown, yellow, and red hues of the season stand out, and evocative figurative language is used effectively throughout. Especially beautiful are the descriptions of the trees, said to be wearing various garments of unique color, leaves "swirling and twirling" and "spinning round."