It's Spring! (Celebrate the Seasons Series)

by Linda Glaser, Susan Swan (Illustrator)

Overview

Simple text and bold, beautiful paper sculpture convey the animal life, plant life, weather, colors, clothing, and feelings associated with the spring season.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761313458
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/01/2003
Series:	Celebrate the Seasons
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,064,826
Product dimensions:	9.13(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.13(d)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

Editorial Reviews

PreS-Gr 1-A companion to the author's It's Fall (Millbrook, 2001). The excitement of spring is in the air as a boy explores the world around him. Cut-paper illustrations enhanced by hand painting give a three-dimensional look to the scenes. A double-page spread of a torrential river made up of marbled paper and paint splatters is especially evocative of the season. However, reading aloud is made somewhat awkward by text that sometimes rhymes and sometimes doesn't. For example: "One day we spot a robin./Then soon we see red-winged blackbirds and/a bright goldfinch. Early in the morning we/hear the birds sing. They cheep and warble/and trill-it's spring!" Still, children will enjoy this spring scavenger hunt as they browse the richly detailed illustrations. The book closes with a list of nature activities.-Alison Kastner, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Glaser and Swan team up once again in this eye-catching and informative ode to nature, the second in a series of seasonal titles (It's Fall!, 2001, etc.). Speaking through the voice of a narrator, Glaser uses simple language to convey the changes brought by spring: warmer weather, budding plants, and awakening animals. "I run outside in thin pants and short sleeves. / No thick heavy winter coat bundled around me. / I skip and leap and feel light and free. / Fresh air rushes all over me." On the next page, "Creeks and streams are starting to flow." In cut-paper collage created from hand-painted papers, Swan's gorgeous depiction of water rushing down a mountainside comes alive with swirling marbled paper and a slate-blue sky flecked with white. In the foreground, sculptured, sun-colored daffodils shoot up around the rocks. Later, Swan's palette turns deep blue and mossy green as a troupe of wide-eyed "spring peepers and bullfrogs sing" amidst the rushes. The narrator and his dog, who's howling at the moon, appear as small silhouettes below the star-dappled sky. In the end, Glaser suggests a series of "Nature Activities to Do in the Spring." A natural choice for springtime reading. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews