October 4th

A week later and it looked like this:

October 12th

Four days later:

October 16th

Three more days:

And today, it looks like this:


October 25th

Amazing! Man, these ash trees lose their leaves early and fast! The other trees around still have leaves. The maples have leaves. The honey locusts have leaves. Even the chestnut still has leaves (although they look awful!). Pretty much all the bare trees I see are ashes.

Even the big ash tree down the street has gone through a dramatic change in the last week. The last time I'd photographed him was nine days ago and he looked like this:

October 16th

Yesterday, he looked like this:

October 24th

Incredible! That tree had the fullest canopy of any tree around here. It was thick with leaves. And now they're gone.

Now we all know that any good tree story has got to start with a seed.

Rex tells his story in rhymes and he makes excellent use of the long e sound in tree.

That is one awesome tree. Look at those roots! And it's already losing its leaves.

As soon as the tree appears, critters show up to live in it. The text in the book is often partially illustrated like the words on the left. The words are oversized and oddly shaped. I feel like I can hear an old-time carnival barker yelling them out: "Step right up and see the whopping big bee!"

After a few more critters show up, the traveling circus drives by. Turns out they've lost their clown. (Can you find him?) While Barley and Brown look around a mischievous monkey steals their key. And he sets the animals free.

Now 13 more creatures climb into the tree. Including an elephant, who you can't see. Uh-oh.

Oh gee.

How fabulous is that word "lea" there?! So cool. I love the idea of using this book in a unit on trees to talk a little about the word tree - to play around with its sound and create some clever rhymes.

If you're interested in another silly story about animal antics, check out Rex's book Pssst!, where the animals at the zoo start talking to the visitors.

Without any seeds to keep the canopy looking full, it's really starting to look bare. But wait, this is a boy/girl tree. I know I've seen girl flowers on this tree as well as boy ones. I wonder why I can find any fruit at all? Hmmm....

Here's a picture from two days later. Now look at the big tree on the right.

I wouldn't really call that green anymore! That's a male tree, like mine, and he seems to be changing all at once.

Three days later (this morning) and the stoplights look like this:

That's just five days between the first picture in this post and this one. Wow!

Yes, I'm talking about you there.

And down below, a crowd is gathering.

They're all brown down here. But I don't think they are all brown when they fall. I think a lot of them are actually yellow when they fall and then brown quickly because they are no longer attached to the twig. Just a theory so far though. I keep trying to get a picture of a leaf actually falling, but I'm never quite quick enough to catch one with the camera. The whole watching a tree thing is funny: it's too slow and it's too quick all at the same time.

There is Anton. Anton has raked up all the leaves.

Look at him! He's so proud!

Wait a minute, there's another one.

Okay, how awesome are the pictures here? The drawings are mostly black outlines on white, with just a few touches of the fall colors red, yellow, orange, and brown here and there.

So Anton wants to get that one last leaf, but...

There comes the wind.

The leaf blows away and Anton runs after it.

There is Lukas. There is the leaf.

Now Lukas joins in the chase after the leaf.

There are Greta and Nina. There come the boys. "Stop!", shouts Anton. "Hang on!", shouts Lukas.

And what do the girls do?


The girls run too. They've almost got the leaf.

Of course the girls join in! Other kids running by chasing something: what 5 year-old can resist that?!

There comes the wind again.

Drat! Just when they had the leaf trapped up in a tree, the wind sends it back in the direction it came from. In the tradition of We're Going on a Bear Hunt, the whole gang runs past all the places they've been before. Past the trees. Past the playground. Past the swing.

They've almost got the leaf. Almost...

Well, you know what happens next, right?

"Got it!", shouts Anton. "Got it!", shouts Lukas. "Got it!", shouts Greta. "Got it!", shouts Nina.

And then they go home to celebrate with juice and cookies.

Isn't Anton the best? Doesn't he just make you want to be a kid again? Now, go on outside and jump in some leaf piles. You know you want to.

When the leaves fall off the twig, they leave behind a scar where they had originally grown out of the twig. The white scar above is the typical "smile" shaped leaf scar that you see on ash tree twigs, particularly next to the terminal bud. This twig has just started losing the leaves at its tip. You can still see two of the petioles (stems) that connect the remaining leaves to the tip of the twig. Soon the bud will be surrounded only by scars.

Scars also remain on the side of the twig where leaves were attached.

See the new scar there! It's still sort of greenish. Amazing!

And on the other side of the same twig, there's another scar. (Recall that the ash tree has leaves in an opposite arrangement, which means that pairs of leaves grow in opposite directions on opposite sides of the twig, making a \ | / shape.)

Here's one last scar I spotted on a low branch of an ash tree across the street.

This one looks a little darker than the others. Maybe it's older? Maybe the petiole broke off a little differently. This picture also gives you a great look at the large scar that marks where the new growth began this season. That's one ugly scar!

Leaves tells the story of a little bear who sees the autumn leaves fall for the very first time. It's a sweet portrayal of a (bear) child's perspective on the mystery of the changing seasons.

The story is told in simple sentences and simple pictures, giving us an authentic sense of a child's thoughts and experience.



The little bear is happy. He runs through the grass and plays among the flowers. And all is right in his world, until...



"Are you okay?" Aww, he's worried about the leaves. Look at his little concerned face! At first, he tries to catch the leaves and put them back on the trees...

He watches them fall all around him and we see him cock his head to the side in confusion. But at the same time, he starts to feel very tired. So without much more introspection...

...and he went to sleep. How very kid-like.

We see winter come and go outside his cozy hole. He remains unaware of the snow falling or the gradual return of the light.

Finally, after his long sleep, he comes out of his hole...

...and is welcomed to spring by the new green buds. He gives the tree a big bear hug and then jumps for joy at the return of the the leaves and the flowers and the world he knew before.

This book is so sweet, I just want to hug it! It shows how special a child's first experience of something can be and what joy the return of something familiar and cherished can bring. Another of Stein's books, Pouch!, tells a similar story of a baby kangaroo, who takes his first hops away from his mother's pouch. These are special experiences and he turns them into special stories for young children.

Check out Stein's website for a free downloadable postcard of little bear and the leaves and a look at how he made Pouch!. And don't miss his hilarious Caldecott Honor book, Interrupting Chicken.