Blog #2

Leaves

Written and illustrated by: David Ezra Stein

Scholastic, Inc., 2007

29 pages

Fantasy

            I chose this book because of the coming season: Autumn!  I thought this would be a great, quick book to read to my fourth grade class at practicum one day soon.  The book is about a bear that is experiencing his first Autumn.  He did not know what to think about the leaves changing colors and falling.  In fact, when the leaves started to fall, he tried to catch them and put them back on the trees! As the world as he knew it changed, he began to get sleepy.  Before he knew it, he found a hole, stuffed it with leaves, and fell asleep.  Then winter came with the cold wind and snow piled up over the bear’s hole, but he was warm and slept soundly.  Suddenly, Spring came and the bear awoke.  As the bear climbed out of his hole, he noticed the new buds coming on the trees and he welcomed the warm months to come.

            The illustrations in this book are drawn by the author, David Ezra Stein.  The art was created by using bamboo pens and watercolors.  The text is set in a font called Green.  The illustrations contain a lot of neutral colors like brown, yellow, dark orange, dark red, and grey.  The colors are very warm when the book portrays Autumn and they are very white describing snow in the Winter.  The illustrations are quite humorous and unrealistic creating a fun layout for children who will be looking at the pages.

            Leaves is an appropriate book for young readers from kindergarten to fourth grade.  The book is brief but it has some complex words and usual language for young readers.  Kindergarten through second-graders should have someone read this book aloud to them.  I would use this book in my elementary classroom to help introduce the season of Autumn.  I think it is great to use the illustrations to describe the seasons to come and how the author used different colors to describe those seasons.  I could also use this book when learning about animals that hibernate during the winter.  The bear in the book was a perfect example.  I loved this book because it was short, yet enjoyable and informative.  This book has received no awards.