Apple-Pickin' Time

Sherry at Semicolon has declared September "Apple Month," so in honor of her theme, I'd like to recommend a little gem of a picture book: Up, Up, Up! It's Apple-Picking Time. My sister-in-law (no, not that one, but Professor Brother's wife) presented Chicklet with it this summer. Subconsciously waiting till the right season, we opened it up for the first time a few weeks ago.

It's a sweet story of a suburban family who travels to the grandparents "apple ranch" to help out for a weekend, picking apples and then selling them at a roadside stand. The illustrations remind me of those by Eric Carle and Ezra Jack Keats (only in a brighter, less-70's color scheme), with a lot of interesting papers cut out in the shapes of humans, trees, and a multitude of different-looking apples. Anyone ever heard of an Anna apple? A Pink Delicious? How about a Red Astrachan, or an Arkansas Black? A Pippin? A Beverly Hills? The Winter Banana?

I like the prose as well as the illustrations. Here's a sample: "We climb up ladders and disappear into the trees. I can see Dad's legs. His voice is coming from the middle of a tree filled with red apples. He's singing a made-up song about loving apple dumplings and eating apple pie. The tree next to him has Mama's laugh. That's the only way I can tell she's in it."

One more: "I say that it already smells as if cider is hiding somewhere in the orchard. 'That's apple-orchard perfume, you're smelling, Myles,' says Granny. Then she surprises us with cups of cool apple juice."

I promise this little book will get you in the mood for a visit to an orchard! Or make you feel like you've been to one.