Leaves

Leaves follows the story of a young bear experiencing fall for the first time. The bear had never seen leaves fall off of trees before, so he is immediately distraught and seems to be concerned about what's going on. He tries to place the leaves back onto the trees, but he is unsuccessful and accepts that the season is changing. 

As the leaves settle and the wind picks up, the bear gathers leaves and snuggles into a hole to sleep. The bear sleeps through the winter and greets the world and the budding leaves once again in the spring. 

I thought that this was a really cute book that subtly introduced the idea of the changing of the seasons and hibernation. Although it was relatively simple, there were some big ideas that the author tackled, especially for young readers. 

I think that this is a great teaching tool, especially around fall, when teachers could talk about these topics and integrate science and literacy. Also an interesting way to approach this book may be by introducing a reading comprehension strategy lesson on using the illustrations to understand the bear and its emotions. The illustrations in this book are particularly telling and definitely could help introduce feelings. 

Overall, I thought this was a really cute book to use with young readers! 

Leaves 
By: David Ezra Stein
Published in 2007