All Dem Leaves
Autumn Leaves
by Ken Robbins.
This is Huck’s current favorite read-aloud. I grabbed it from the library on impulse a couple of weeks ago—we’re short on fall color here, and the cover appealed to me, but I didn’t expect it to grab the three-year-old’s attention. Shows what I know. The kid is smitten. He thinks it’s called “All Dem Leaves.”
The bold images on the cover are a good foretaste of what’s inside. We’ve spent many happy moments poring over these bright leaves, matching their shapes to their names. Turns out we have a lot of sweet gum trees on our street—almost the only sparks of autumnal foliage we see here. (Mind: we’re not complaining. 70-degree weather and soaring blue skies. I’m content to satisfy my fall-color longings with children’s books.)
Rilla’s a fan of the book too—it ties in quite serendipitously to the fun we’ve been having with the Trees of England course over at Memrise. (By golly, I know my horse chestnut from my blackthorn now.)
Most of you probably live in places where the gold and scarlet has been stripped from the branches by now, in late November. (Jiminy crickets, it’s late November. I’m quaking.) This recommendation may come a bit late; we’ll all be in Holly and Ivy mode soon. But if you’re not ready to let go of autumn, you might enjoy a ramble through these colorful woods.
Jennifer says:
Sort of unrelated but have you run into any not so child friendly hints on memrise? We had a tattooed backside crudely described and shown in the French course.
On November 26, 2012 at 5:51 pm
Jeanne says:
Love that Autumn Leaves/AllDem Leaves. That boy’s got an ear for near rhyme!
On November 26, 2012 at 7:17 pm
Melissa Wiley says:
@Jennifer, I was going to say no, I hadn’t run into anything like that, but then this morning the German word for “six” (sechs) came up and the first hint visible was a play on its English sound-alike. š My kids have only done trees and state capitals so far, not the German courses, so they haven’t encountered anything inappropriate. But I can see how there’s a risk, with the language stuff especially. My inclination is to have them think up their own mems and not scroll through other people’s suggestions. That’s working better for me, anyway–I’ve found that most of the suggestions are simply wordplays that aren’t as helpful as a really vivid mental picture. And they most often seem to work from the German word backward to English (i.e. puns on the German word to relate to its meaning in English, when what I need are triggers that get me from the English word to the German, if you see what I mean). So I usually create my own mem myself as well.
On November 27, 2012 at 7:32 am
Jennifer says:
Ah! I only just started. I didn’t know we could make up our own!
On November 27, 2012 at 8:08 am
Fe says:
Ah, more book recommendations:-)
Cygnet is still desperately keen on ‘Goodnight, goodnight Construction Site’ which we gave him last Christmas, and the other two have had a lovely year with Redwall and Betsy-Tacy, all of which I discovered thanks to your recommendations:-)
So I’m busily reading through, looking for more inspiration for this year (and hoping to get to ordering in a timely fashion this year!)
On November 27, 2012 at 11:32 pm
Elizabeth H. says:
Delighted to see the Memrise British trees thing — at last I might be able to keep up with my children! Thanks!
Also — you may have seen this on FB already but as the mother of a child with hearing loss, you might like the YouTube video that’s going round
On November 29, 2012 at 9:48 am
Elizabeth H. says:
Oops. Here: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HTzTt1VnHRM
On November 29, 2012 at 9:49 am
Renee c. says:
I had to take a closer look at your bio to see why you aren’t shivering in cold weather like most of us in the northern part of North America! I see that you are in San Diego – lucky you!! š
I also see that you have 6 kids! You must be some busy Mama – when exactly do you find the time to write? lol Your books look fabulous – congrats on your successes as a writer.
Thank you for sharing your post in the Kid Lit Blog Hop. I’m excited to see a new face and I’m now following you via email and all the usual ways. I’m really looking forward to getting to know you better and I hope you will join us in the next Hop next week. Cheers! š
On November 29, 2012 at 2:15 pm