Review by Booklist Review
PreS^-Gr. 2. It's cider-making time on Grandpa's apple farm, and the whole family helps. Alex and Abigail pick bright red apples and carry bushel baskets to the wagon. They stand along a conveyer belt helping to sort the perfect (eating) apples from the not-so-perfect (cider) apples. Later, they watch as the apples are chopped into what Grandpa calls "apple mush" and pressed into cider. The cider is bottled and sold, and the family celebrates the labor with glasses of the sweet drink. The comfortable, colorful art brings little ones up close to the process and gives them a good look at the conveyor belts and presses and other machinery involved; the scene of the apple orchard store, shelves filled with jams and honey, gallons of cider, and pies and doughnuts all neatly stacked for purchase, is especially nice. A double-page spread, "Cider Lore," following the story, provides wonderful tidbits about the cider-making process. An excellent resource for autumn units or to use in preparation for a trip to the orchard. --Helen Rosenberg
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-It is cider-making time on grandpa's apple farm, and Alex, Abigail, and the rest of the family pick and sort the fruit. Only the odd ones, by shape or color, are tossed into the chopper to make the apple mush. The mush then goes to the press where the juice is squeezed out. Once the cider is ready, the family opens the Apple Barn where they all help sell the apples, cider, and homemade jams and pastries. The realistic illustrations are soft with autumnal colors and show the process that results in that glass of cider. Although listed as fiction, there is more straightforward information than story. The addition of the children makes this book more personal for young students. A useful purchase for most collections.-Elaine Lesh Morgan, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
This seasonal book tells how apples are made into cider on a family-run farm. Aunts, uncles, Grandpa, and grandkids all help in the process, which starts in the orchard and ends at the farm stand. Details in the art and (flatly told) story demonstrate how apples are sorted for eating or for cider and then explain the actual cider-pressing process. The autumnal palette gives a warm and welcoming tone to the topic. Cider Lore is appended. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Nothing says back-to-school more than an elementary school unit on apples. And newcomer Purmell's is a wonderful addition to the curriculum. On Grandpa's family apple farm, there is a job for everyone as Alex and Abigail and their aunts, uncles, and cousins work together to harvest the apples, sort and bag them, press cider, make apple products, and sell them in Grandpa's store, The Apple Barn. From the wagon ride out to pick the apples, to the work done in the barn, the process of harvesting and processing them is described in detail. Readers will love to see how the apple cider press works. They will follow as the imperfect apples take a trip through the grater, which creates apple mush, on to the steel frame of the cider press where layer upon layer of apple mush is stacked up, then pressed. The cider flows out the bottom through a tube and into a holding tank where it's kept cool. From here, it goes into the jugs that people will buy as unpasteurized cider. Friar's (The Shape of Betts Meadow, not reviewed, etc.) drawings perfectly fit the topic. Details are rich and the colors are just right for autumn apple-picking days. The Cider Lore section at the back enriches the readers' understanding with more details about apples and cider. For instance, cider is a blend of different types of apples that cider makers usually keep a secret. Also, no two pressings of cider ever taste exactly the same. A great new addition to an overstuffed field. (Nonfiction. 4-8)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
