Autumn A pop-up book

Carter follows Winter and Spring with a third seasonal title, which uses gentle free verse to pull readers forward: "Autumn days bring a chill in the air,/ colorful leaves float gently from trees,/ and the fields are full of life." Plants and animals, all labeled, dot the scenes pictured in the accompanying images-a cluster of pop-up squash, a tree whose yellow leaves dangle from strings, and late-season wildflowers that seem to grow as the pop-up takes shape. Questions directed at readers ("Who sings a beautiful song?/ Who hunts from the sky?") encourage engagement as night falls in the mountainous landscape. It's an impressive introduction to a busy season, both for the animals preparing for winter and because of the bounty of food awaiting harvest. Ages 3-5. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Carter's latest stop on his ongoing seasonal cycle offers pop-up pumpkins, corn, and other signs of mellow fruitfulness.As in his Winter (2015) and Spring (2016), each opening presents a small, flat landscape dominated by a central pop-up, with scattered specimens of flora, insects, birds, and other wildlifewith identifying labels for most everything, even cloudsand leading questions below: "Who nibbles the water plants?" "Who hunts from the sky?" The setting is unspecified but has the look of the western United States, with glimpses of bison, California chicory, sockeye salmon, and a ringtail visible in various scenes, and a house visible in the distance that looks North American or European. Persimmons and pomegranates on the final spread broaden the general sense of locale a bit, though, and only early mention of "a chill in the air" pins the narrative to particular latitudes. Barred clouds ("altocumulus") bloom on a soft dying day before the final observation that "Winter is coming; it's time to harvest." A serene and lovely presentation. (Informational pop-up picture book. 3-5) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.