Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This satisfying tale celebrates not only apples but all the cozy trappings of fall. On a crisp, cool morning a family drives to the grandparents' "apple ranch," where they help with the harvest. Harvill (Jack and the Animals) captures the simple pleasures of this special visit in cut-paper collages, using different techniques to color the various papers. Characters' faces, for example, have drawn-on features, while the apples and the orchard emerge from lushly painted papers, with overlapping brushstrokes of varying greens, yellows, pinks and reds creating dimension and movement. Shapiro, owner of a California children's bookstore, ably conveys a sense of family togetherness and love, from the boy narrator who enjoys the warmth of his sister as she sleeps against his shoulder in the car, to the grandmother who proudly tells the customers, " `These are the grandkids come to help.' She almost sings the words." Later, the family feasts on apple dumplings and dances to Grandpa's old jazz records, while the boy lies near the crackling fire, basking in the joy of "watching everyone being happy." Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-This book succeeds more at describing an experience than in telling a strong story. It's time to pick apples on Grandma and Grandpa's farm and then sell the fruit at the roadside stand. The family drinks in the apple aroma, "Apple smell is in the air-/apple perfume everywhere," and tastes the fruit, "The apple is cool and crunchy and sweet." Apples are described as big as softballs. At the end of the adventure, the family dances to old jazz records. The paper-collage, color illustrations highlight the warm and jovial interactions. The varying perspectives of the art nicely complement this sensory experience. A pleasant addition to harvest units and storytimes.-Linda M. Kenton, San Rafael Public Library, CA (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
A boy's bouncy first-person narration describes his visit to his grandparents' farm. Myles and his family spend the afternoon picking apples in Granny and Grandpa's orchard; the following day they sell the fruit from a roadside stand. This old-fashioned, slice-of-life episode is accompanied by appealing illustrations, which resemble cut-paper collage, and a recipe for Granny's Microwave-Baked Apples. From HORN BOOK Spring 2004, (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
Apple-themed disquisitions for younger readers tend to be set in the Northeast or Midwest, but Shapiro draws on personal experiences in California to give this one a different slant. Up at sunrise, a family piles into the car for the half-day trip to Grandma and Grandpa's canyon "apple ranch." After picking up windfalls for cider, and climbing ladders to pick Granny Smiths, Red and Gold Delicious, Winter Bananas, Macintosh, and "a few stray Gravensteins," all return to the house for Pippin pie, then, next day open up a busy roadside stand. Shapiro laces her narrative with evocations of that heavenly taste and smell, and caps it with a yummy-looking recipe for microwave-baked apples. Using painted-paper collage to create a wide range of surface textures and artfully blended colors, Harvill sandwiches scenes of smiling figures amid lush, rough-barked trees between endpapers dotted with common apple varieties. A perfect dessert after Gibbons's Apples (2000) or another of the plethora of informational titles. (Picture book. 5-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
