By the Light of the Harvest Moon
This warm picture-book fantasy celebrates fall, especially the amazing movement, light, color, and sounds of autumn leaves. On a clear moonlit night, after a farmer has gone to bed, leaf people emerge from piles of leaves. Double-page pastel images in seasonal shades of orange, red, and yellow show the leafy grown-ups, kids, and pets enjoying their freedom. The leaf children play: bobbing for apples, weaving leaves, stringing popcorn necklaces, and then stacking pumpkins, which then roll down the hill—right into the middle of a party that the grown-ups have made for them. A leaf grandma talks about the autumnal equinox, the kids eat pie, and then, in the story’s climax, the leaf people get to fly in the gusts of wind. The combination of fantasy and realism in the crisp autumn night will spark children’s imagination about the leaf piles they find in their city, suburb, or country roads. Preschool-Grade 2. --Hazel Rochman