Four Seasons Make a Year

by Anne Rockwell, Megan Halsey (Illustrator)

Overview

Beloved author Anne Rockwell takes young readers through the year, as each season brings new surprises and discoveries.

In the spring, leaves sprout, showers come, and it's time for planting. Bees buzz and roses bloom as summer arrives. The fall turns pumpkins orange and leaves red and gold, and the wind grows cold. In wintertime, snow twirls down, and the flames in the fireplace leap and glow. Next year, it will all happen again, but it will be a little different, too. Everything is always growing and changing on a farm. Megan Halsey's charming collage illustrations are the perfect complement to this delightful introduction to the wonders of the seasons.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802788832
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	03/01/2004
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	205,056
Product dimensions:	10.29(w) x 8.34(h) x 0.36(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Anne Rockwell is a beloved name in books for preschoolers. She is the author of Big Wheels, The Toolbox, Backyard Bear, and Little Shark. She lives in Greenwich, Connecticut.

www.annerockwell.com

MEGAN HALSEY has illustrated more than forty books, many of them collaborations with Anne Rockwell, including Backyard Bear, Becoming Butterflies, Little Shark, and One Bean. She lives in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania. www.meganhalseyart.com

Editorial Reviews

This fourth collaboration on a nature topic, Four Seasons Make a Year by Anne Rockwell, illus. by Megan Halsey, takes readers on a journey through the year, marking time with the equinoxes, solstices and agricultural rhythms. Each season, readers see the transformations underway on a girl's farm (particularly that of a sunflower planted during the spring rains-by summer, the flower dwarfs the girl, by fall, it "droops its huge blossom, heavy with seeds"). Halsey works in collage composed of cutouts of her own inked and painted drawings, giving the compositions a shadow box feel. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

PreS-Gr 1-A girl describes the seasons on her family's farm in the northeastern United States: weather; development of vegetables, flowers, trees; birds' activities; chores; and her favorite pursuits. Beginning in the spring, she plants a sunflower seed and follows the plant's growth throughout the year. The clear and airy text appears on a narrow panel on each spread along with some spot art. The mixed-media illustrations reflect the simplicity of Rockwell's text. Faint collaged bits of The Old Farmer's Almanac behind the text add interest. Halsey uses an inventive device among her more conventional illustrations: she creates a visual flannel-board landscape that appears repeatedly bearing flat, felt-type images (farmhouse, tractor, trees, barn, and scarecrow) with appropriate seasonal details. A clear and general introduction to the cyclical formation of the calendar.-Liza Graybill, Worcester Public Library, MA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

In this rather blinkered tour through the annual cycle, a child tallies the exact dates of the solstices and equinoxes while observing natural changes that mark each season. Some of those observations are simplistic-in spring: "Every day the air gets warmer." "June 21st is the first day of summer. Green sprouts spring up from the field." The possibility that seasons might not be so distinct beyond the author's New England home is acknowledged only in an inconspicuous, small-type note. In characteristically clear, uncluttered illustrations, Halsey places the young narrator/naturalist in a generic rural setting. Previous Rockwell/Halsey collaborations, such as One Bean (1998) and Two Blue Jays (2003), introduce narrower topics to young children more successfully; for a basic but more inclusive introduction to the seasons, there are plenty of other choices. (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-6)

Kirkus Reviews