D.E.A.R. ~ Best Books for October

As a lifelong lover of children's books, I've decided I should include a monthly "Best Books" post.

Each month I will suggest some books that I love.  Some months (like this one) I will stick to a theme, other months I won't.

With these October books I am focussing on the beauty of fall and the wonder of pumpkins while staying far far away from scary.  *I don't "do" scary.*  I've include one witch story... but it isn't the least bit scary.  Please include your favorite October books in the comment section below!

Pub: Sandpiper 1996

To start, if you've never read, "Pumpkins: A story for a field", go find a copy today!  This book probably ranks in my top 20 most favorite children's books of all time.  It's a beautiful and creative book by Mary Lyn Ray with illustrations by Barry Root.  This story is about a man who lives across the road from a field and he loves this field.  One day he sees that the field is for sale.  He comes up with a very unique way of raising the money to purchase the field so that it may stay the way it is forever.

Pub: Scholastic Trade 2003

Next is a book that is just simply *beautiful* to look at!  "Autumn Leaves" by Ken Robbins has the most stunning pictures of fall leaves from lots of different trees.  This book can be appreciated by a young age just for its bright colors, or by older children who would like to talk about the differences between the 13 different kinds of trees and leaves and which ones they've seen before.

Pub: Tricycle Press 2002

This book shows the whole process of the life of a pumpkin from seed to compost.  "Pumpkin Circle" is written by George Levenson with photography by Shmuel Thaler.  There is also an associated website that has all kinds of activities and information about pumpkins and how to grow them.  Pumpkins are easy to grow and fun to watch as the plant changes from two tiny leaves to a huge vine full of pumpkins.

Here is the corresponding website: Pumpkin Circle Website.

Pub: Oxford Univ + Press 2006

What would this post be without a Halloween-ish story.  I say Halloween-ish because this book isn't scary and isn't exactly about Halloween but it does have a witch, a black cat, and a big old house.  "Winnie the Witch" is by Valerie Thomas with illustrations by Korky Paul.  Winnie lives in an all black house with her black cat.  Whenever her cat is sleeping on a black chair, she accidentally sits on the cat since she can't see it.  Read and find out her creative way of dealing with this problem.  If you like this story, I found that there are many other books about Winnie the witch.

Lastly, kids (particularly elementary school age kids) love nonfiction books.  Gail Gibbons has written books on zillions of topics and her books teach kids so many things in a way that they can understand and with LOTS of pictures.  Check out these two October themed Gail Gibbons books (I haven't actually read the Halloween one but I've read enough Gail Gibbons book to know that they are all great).

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Thanks!!