Hooray for Perfect Picture Book Friday!
I have a wonderful family fall book to share, but first, one quick note:
Perfect Picture Books are meant to be reviewed on people’s blogs and include all the relevant information (title, author, illustrator, publisher, themes, age range of intended audience, review, etc), most importantly, links to resources or ideas of how the book can be expanded on at home or in the classroom, so the links provided must go to people’s blogs. You cannot put an Amazon link to a book title. You cannot put a Goodreads link to a book title. I had to remove about 50 titles that had no reviews by the person listing it and no resources provided. This list is meant to be a resource for parents, teachers, and writers to find great books. The reviews and resources are critical. Thank you all for understanding and following the guidelines!
Now! It’s Applesauce Day! 😊
Title: Applesauce Day
Written By: Lisa J. Amstutz
Illustrated By: Talitha Shipman
Publisher: Albert Whitman (August 2017), fiction
Suitable For Ages: 4-8
Themes/Topics: autumn, apples, family tradition
Opening: “I spy the big pot on the counter right away.
“Hooray!” I say. “It’s Applesauce Day!”
Hannah cheers.
Ezra bangs his spoon.”
Brief Synopsis: Each fall, Maria’s family has Applesauce Day. All together, they go pick apples. Then they bring them to Grandma’s house and all together they make applesauce in the big pot that has been in their family for generations.
Links To Resources: Make applesauce! It’s easy, fun, healthy, and delicious! HERE is a RECIPE
Why I Like This Book: The text is simple and straightforward, and tells the story of a family doing something they do every year – going apple picking and then heading to Grandma’s house to make applesauce. At first, the child telling the story doesn’t see what’s so special about the pot. It looks like a regular pot to her. But as the family washes and slices the apples, her mother tells her about making applesauce with grandma in that pot, and grandma tells about making applesauce with her mother in that pot. And suddenly, the old pot seems very special because it draws them all together. By the end of the story, when they are driving home, the girl imagines that maybe someday she will have a child and make applesauce in the same pot that she, and her mother, and her grandmother, and her great-grandmother all used. It’s a lovely story of family and tradition, and also about the joy of picking apples and making applesauce in the fall.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 😊
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Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Maybe go pick some apples and make applesauce! 😊
Susanna Leonard Hill 
I love this book, Susanna. And it’s perfect for the season. I used to make applesauce with my kiddos and they loved it!
I made applesauce with my mom, and then with my kids. Never with my grandmas, alas, but I hope I’ll get to do it with my granddaughter!
We were not an applesauce family (it came in a jar from Motts!) but your story jogged some family memories of fall activities. Very nice.
This certainly is the perfect picture book for Fall!
One of my favorite kindergarten class trips was to the local farm to collect apples and other treasures with the little ones! We would then celebrate “apple day”!
I would definitely have added APPLESAUCE DAY to our classroom library!
Thanks, Susanna! 🙂
I grew up in the city, so there were no school apple picking trips for me. But my kids all did them – with us and at school – so it is a happy part of fall!
You don’t have to have made applesauce to have wonderful family fall traditions, Robin! That is for sure! I’m glad if this book made you think of happy times! 😊
I think lots of kids could relate to this family activity. If not making applesauce, at least to picking the apples. Books that connect generations are always like getting a special hug.
What beautiful illustrations. This book gives me such a nostalgic feeling. It brings to mind the smell of warm apples cooking in my mother’s kitchen. This truly is a perfect heat-warming picture book for this cool Fall day.
I’m so glad you mentioned the illustrations, Mary! I chose the book for the story, but realized belatedly that the illustrator is Talitha Shipman, who is illustrating one of my books that is coming out in December! So I was doubly glad to share it! 😊
I think so, too, Rose! And it’s nice to learn about other families’ traditions even if they’re different from your own!
I love this book! One of my favorite classroom activities was asking the students to bring in an apple and we used a crock pot to make our own applesauce. Wow, did the school smell good on applesauce day!
Oh, what a wonderful day that must have been, Angie! I never made applesauce at school, but it does make the whole house smell heavenly whenever I make it at home!
It smells SOOOO good!
You always find the perfect book for the seasons. This sounds lovely. I remember picking apples off our trees and helping my mother make applesauce and pies. So much fun because it has a different texture and has so much flavor. Love intergenerational stories too!
I’m so glad you like it, Pat! I never went apple picking with my family, but we did take a trip each fall to Taconic Orchards and buy apples, which we would eat in the car on the way home, and then make into cider and applesauce and pies!
Oh, this takes me back to the gallons and gallons and gallons of applesauce I used to make with my mom every year. We had transparent apple trees, and they made a sweet-tart applesauce. My niece still uses the pot and sieve my mom used to use. Nothing like passing down a bit of tradition. I still make mini batches of applesauce on the stove, but from Pink Ladies, and my son loves it, of course! What a terrific book to share with kids. Maybe it will inspire them to make their own applesauce with their parents.
Oh, I hope so, Jilanne! We loved making applesauce too! And cider! My dad got a cider press, and we used to LOVE doing that – twisting the handle down, down, down, to press all the juice out of the apples! So fun… and so delicious!
This reminds me of the recipe my kid’s kindergarten teacher had her students make. She was creative and fun and the kids loved her! 1 jar applesauce, 1/2 C. brown sugar, & 1 T cinnamon. Stir and let simmer in crockpot. The kids thought they had made a masterpiece! She was brilliant!
That IS brilliant, Phyllis! 😊
I love this book. I made applesauce with my Mom.
Me, too, Charlotte. Those were happy days!
I LOVE this book. Lisa Amstutz did a great job with it. I’d almost forgotten what a great fall book it is. Thanks for the reminder Susanna!
My pleasure, Maria! It was new to me! And I discovered in the process that it was illustrated by the same artist who is illustrating one of my books coming out in December! Apparently it’s a small world 😊
I have so many applesauce memories with my mom and then with my own girls! What a wonderful fall book.
Me, too, Laura! I’m so glad you like it!
This book sounds as delicious as applesauce.
It is exactly that, Norah 😊