The Seasons

This book uses photographs of children to illustrate the seasons. Each photo has a short piece of text clearly related to it, extending what we can see - for example 'Georgia can see the buds on the tree, ready to burst into new green leaves in the warm sunshine.' There is a mixture of natural occurrences in each season - chicks, a squirrel, etc. - and children at play in sunshine or showers or amid autumn leaves. A topical summertime warning about suncreams and hats is included. Page tops are colour-coded for each season, providing young children with another visual cue, and the text is varied by occasional questions to the reader. One or two quibbles: why do books like this continue to place the grain harvest in autumn, when in the UK it mainly takes place in summer? And why is winter represented by so many snowy scenes (shot in France, incidentally) when we have so few really snowy days in the UK? No fog, frost or dull November skies, and only one picture of bare winter trees, any of which are more likely to be experienced by the young British child. A nice touch, however, is the last photo, of crocuses poking through the snow, taking the child's attention back to Spring again. A very child-friendly, usable book for the Infant classroom, described as suitable for National Curriculum KSI Science and Scottish Guidelines Environmental Studies Level A.