PICTURE BOOK - Apples and Robins by Lucie Felix

Illustrated by the author

2016, Chronicle Books (2013 in France)

48 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.02 - 257 ratings

My rating:  4

Endpapers: none

1^st line/s:  "All you need for apples are circles and the color red."

My comments:  This story tells of a backyard of robins and apple trees and how the two thrive together.  Shapes are cut from the pages of the book, and when overlayed onto drawn, brightly colorful shapes, create a new image.  Pretty cool and wonderful!

Goodreads:  In this extraordinary book, one thing transforms into another as each page turns—a circle becomes an apple, an oval becomes a bird, winter becomes spring. Constantly surprising and brilliantly constructed, Lucie Félix's Apples and Robins is full of the magic of shape, color, and imagination. All you need to do . . . is turn the page.

Applesauce Season - Eden Ross Lipson

Illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein
Roaring Brook Press, 2009
$17.99
32 pgs.
For: kids
Rating: 4.5
Endpapers: 3 x 4 blocks of apples & faces on each page (Granny Smith, Northern Spy, Ida Red...)

All I really have left of my "past life" as a Maine mom and wife comes in spits and spurts at unexpected times. This book brought it gushing like a plumbing fixture gone wild. It's all about a family tradition of making homemade applesauce. And it's made in almost the same way that my family begged for every October. First, we'd go apple picking in one of the many orchards in the Bangor area where you could pick a grocery bagful for a minimum price. When the kids were younger they'd sit on their dad's shoulders and reach high...as they go older they'd find a ladder leaning against a tree. We'd munch on apples as we picked. I'm happy to say that both my kids now take their kids apple picking.

Once home, I'd make apple crisp and applesauce. I'd cut the apples and cook them EXACTLY like it tells in the book - except I'd only use one type of apple. I LOVE the idea of mixing three or more types in one cooking! I'd use a food mill, just like they do in the book, and add 1/3 cup of sugar to the still-hot apple mixture. Then we'd pour it into jars and share with friends and family. Sometimes the sauce would come out pink, sometimes yellow. Steve said he loved it when it was pink because it reminded him of his grandmother's.

And that's what this book is about - a family tradition. This family happens to live in the city and shop at the farmer's market, but it sure doesn't matter where those crisp apples come from. I LOVE this book!

I left my food mill behind when I came west. I've just gone online and bought one, it's time to make some applesauce in the sunny southwest. It'll be good for the potato latkes/pancakes I want to make, too! The only difference is that they don't make bright orange ones anymore, like I used to have....I'm going to have to settle for white!

One Red Apple - Harriet Ziefert

Illustrated by Karla Gudeon
Blue Apple Books, 2009
$16.99
32 pages (one flips up)
Rating: 5
Endpapers: small apples, bees, bluebirds, cores, leaves on a pale brown background

Oh-oh-oh. This is beautiful!

Simple. Thoughtful. G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S illustrations. A five through and through.

The story shows an apple being picked from a tree, trucked to market, bought at a farm stand, and eaten. It shows birds eating the apple core, leftover seeds being scattered and planted randomly. The seed germinates and sprouts - grows to a big tree (here we flip up the page to see it all) and sprouts beautiful pink blossoms. And then it's time to pick the fruit and watch the cycle begin again.

On the back jacket flap it shows another book by this writer and illustrator - Hanukkah Haiku!
It also states that Karla Gudeon's art is displayed in galleries around the U. S. I wonder where?

NOTE: A Great book to read to young kids each October before going apple picking!