Book Review: Fall Feast

August 28, 2024 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

Learn how plants and animals spend fall getting ready for winter in this sweet picture book. Fall Feast: Nature’s Harvest by Sean Taylor and Alex Morss features a family going for a walk on a cool fall day and observing what’s happening in nature.

Morss is an ecologist, journalist and educator, so you can be sure the facts shared in the book are accurate, while Cinyee Chiu’s illustrations are warm and inviting.

The children see birds, squirrels, fungi and nibbled nuts and apples on their walk, and learn from their mama how animals get ready for winter (and fungi and bugs help nature along by devouring a dead tree). They gather fallen apples and take them home to mom, who makes a fall treat so they can have their own feast together.

After the story, the book talks about why fall happens (because of the tilt of the earth away from the sun) and explores in more detail what’s happening with plants and animals this time of year. Some plants drop their leaves, for example, while others make berries or seed pods to spread their seeds around for next year.

Some animals hibernate or migrate, while others store up food, make a warmer winter shelter or grow thicker fur to keep warm.

It also covers insects, fungi and other decomposers, and gives tips for helping out the plants and animals in the fall. (I’d have liked a recipe for what they call flapjacks in the book but looks more like a cake to me, but that’s maybe just me.)

This book is the fourth in a series of books about nature and the seasons, which also includes Winter Sleep, Busy Spring, and Wild Summer. If you like the style and the story you might want to pick up all four so you have the complete story of the year for your family or classroom to share.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover, published 2024 by Happy Yak. Suggested retail price $19.99.

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Book Review: Little Mole Gives Thanks

One way to help teach kids about Thanksgiving and why it’s important to be grateful is by reading books, and Little Mole Gives Thanks by Glenys Nellist, illustrated by Sally Garland, is a sweet story about the value of friendship and sharing.

Little Mole has made a feast and invited some very important guests, but when they all cancel at the last minute, Mole is reminded that the most important people in his life are his friends and family. All the animals in the forest join together and have a feast, raising a glass to the creatures who are always there for them.

It’s a quick little story but it’s sweet, and the book also includes a little information about how you can plan your own fancy forest feast.

This would be a really fun thing to do with a preschool group. You could read the book and plan your own fancy forest feast, which could be a regular lunch made fancy by eating outside and making some fun decorations for the table or picnic area. Families could bring food or kids can help prepare a treat in the classroom, depending on how you’re set up.

I also love the idea of using a book like this to talk about the people who are important in our lives. Mole’s special guests — the school principal, a firefighter and the mayor — are all important people and worth being thankful for, but in our day-to-day lives, the people who are closest to us are really the ones who are most important and who we should be thankful for. But it’s easy to forget showing gratitude to people we see all the time.

And that’s really what Thanksgiving is all about! Giving thanks for those people who are important to us on special days, but on every other day, too. Little Mole Gives Thanks is an easy way to start those conversations with little kids.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover, published 2023 by Beaming Books, suggested retail price $17.99.

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