Apples

by Ken Robbins, Ken Robbins (Photographer)

Overview

Apples!
Apples!
Apples!
Crunchy and tasty, sweet and tart, in colorful shades of red, yellow, and green — sometimes all three — everyone loves apples! In this lively and vibrant book, young readers will learn how apples grow, from the planting of a tree, to the pollination of buds by bees, and on to the harvest. And then comes the fun part as apples are used to tease the taste buds in so many ways — in pies and strudel, in cider and applesauce, but most of all, in that one simple crunch when one bites into an apple's crisp sweetness. Ken Robbins's hand-colored photographs will make you want to take a bite yourself!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481401654
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	08/07/2013
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.10(d)
Lexile:	770L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

Ken Robbins specializes in photographic nonfiction books on subjects ranging from the Brooklyn Bridge to autumn leaves. His book Tools, with its trademark hand-tinted photographs was a New York Times Best Illustrated Book. His books for Atheneum include Fireflies at Midnight by Marilyn Singer, Trucks, Thunder on the Plains, and Apples. Mr. Robbins lives in East Hampton, Long Island.

Ken Robbins specializes in photographic nonfiction books on subjects ranging from the Brooklyn Bridge to autumn leaves. His book Tools, with its trademark hand-tinted photographs was a New York Times Best Illustrated Book. His books for Atheneum include Fireflies at Midnight by Marilyn Singer, Trucks, Thunder on the Plains, and Apples. Mr. Robbins lives in East Hampton, Long Island.

Editorial Reviews

This fall, a bumper crop of informational titles feeds hungry minds. Apples by Ken Robbins uses hand-tinted photographs and accessible text to explain how apples are grown, harvested, pressed into cider and otherwise used as food. An author's note elucidates apple-speak ("Today, when we say, `You're the apple of my eye,' it means you're something very special to me") and points out the fruit's role in literature and folklore.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 2-4-"An apple is a wonderful thing-a perfect handful of portable food, wrapped in a package of its very own skin." Robbins wraps his tribute to the popular fruit in a slim package of simple text and artistically rendered photographs. He begins by explaining the growing cycle, goes on to discuss the ways apples are enjoyed as food, and concludes with some added notes on foods and beverages, common phrases, and bits of history and literature. Robbins's photographs, enhanced through hand tinting or soft focus, succeed in varying degrees. The first few pages show a static assembly of four apples on a white page, an odd view of a small tree trunk that doesn't demonstrate the accompanying point, and a blurred unlovely view of trees in blossom. Suddenly, in mid-book, the facing pages become beautiful, coherent units. An enlarged lush view of apple blossoms resembling a fine, soft painting faces an exquisite cutaway of the flower's stamens, pistil, and seed chamber. A vibrant, homely pot of apple chunks atop a stove faces a smaller bowl of thick applesauce. Appealing portraits of children enjoying the fruit and a few views of orchard workers and equipment round out the presentation, and the final page depicts 12 popular varieties. Gail Gibbons's Apples (Holiday, 2000), Betsy Maestro's How Do Apples Grow? (HarperCollins, 1992), and Charles Micucci's Life and Times of the Apple (Orchard, 1996) offer more detailed explanations, but there's always room for another apple, and this pleasant introduction is a welcome addition.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

"An apple is a wonderful thing-a perfect handful of portable food, wrapped in a package of its very own skin." So begins this-one would have to say delicious-story of how apples grow and the ways they come to us. Robbins's (Thunder on the Plains, 2001, etc.) photographs are hand-colored, giving them an old-fashioned feel but also allowing them a vibrancy and-one would have to say juiciness-that complements the text. Readers learn how apples are rarely grown from seed, but grafted, about apple blossoms and the work of bees in the orchard, how apples are harvested, and some of their many uses. A century-old cider press and an apple-cheeked girl eyeing a glass of cider are among the pictures, and it is very hard to gaze upon the pot of apples turning into applesauce or the apple slices in pie crust without salivating. Robbins employs a nice selection of close-up and wider views, of apples dancing on a white page or full-bleed of a boy picking apples in a tree. A not-entirely-serious authorial "More About Apples" is appended. Would make a yummy storytime with Deborah Turney Zagwyn's Apple Batter (1999) and Nancy Elizabeth Wallace's Apples, Apples, Apples (2000). (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews