The Turning of the Year

by Bill Martin Jr, Greg Shed (Illustrator)

Overview

Sledding, splashing, catching fireflies, picking pumpkins—from January to December, each month brings a new adventure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780152045555
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/01/2007
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	28
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.13(d)
Lexile:	NC740L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

BILL MARTIN JR is known worldwide for his classic picture books, including Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? He lives in Texas. 

Greg Shed is the illustrator of many children's books for children including Squanto's Journey, by Joseph Bruchac, and Dandelions by Eve Bunting. He lives in San Diego, California.

Editorial Reviews

"Heartwarming . . . A delight any time of the year."—School Library Journal —

From the Publisher

PreS-Gr 2--Month by month, this heartwarming poem evokes the joys of each season. Martin's precise use of words is key to the success of the book: "In January, out I go/to welcome winter's icy blow./In February, bound with snow,/I sled the hillside, top to toe." No matter the weather, Shed's softly focused gouache-on-canvas paintings are full of warmth. He blends both contentment and exuberance into each brushstroke, offering up a pleasing portrait of each month. Full-page scenes showing the activities of a boy and a girl are accented with close-up illustrations of familiar seasonal objects--fireflies in June and mittens in December. A delight any time of the year.--Christy Norris Blanchette, Valley Cottage Library, NY

School Library Journal

This book on the changing faces of the months is solid Martin fare: a simple story that delights in language and word play. A short poem calls forth the character of each month: "In January, out I go/to welcome winter's icy blow." For the most part, the words and imagery are accessible, but on occasion there are more difficult words or phrasesþe.g., chrysanthemum, or "the maple's raucous shout"þto keep readers alert. The book is also a paean to rural life, with harvest fields and New England villages, a hazy September meadow of wildflowers, and a pumpkin patch, all looming large and lovingly. Shed's full-page scenes of a boy and girl living this idyll fairly shout contentment, and on every text page he includes vignettesþcandy corn for October, marbles and baseball cards for May, mittens for January—that add to the evocation. Along with Charlotte F. Otten's January Rides the Wind (1997), this is ripe for units on the seasons. (Picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews