Leaf Man (Ala Notable Children’s Books. Younger Readers (Awards))
Fall has come, the wind is gusting, and Leaf Man is on the move. Is he drifting east, over the marsh and ducks and geese? Or is he heading west, above the orchards, prairie meadows, and spotted cows? No one’s quite sure, but this much is certain: A Leaf Man’s got to go where the wind blows.
With illustrations made from actual fall leaves and die-cut pages on every spread that reveal gorgeous landscape vistas, here is a playful, whimsical, and evocative book that celebrates the natural world and the rich imaginative life of children.
Includes an author’s note and leaf-identifying labels.
List Price: $ 16.99
Price: $ 9.49
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What fun! So much to see!,
This book is getting good reviews for good reason. Lois Ehlert uses images of actual autumn leaves to tell a simple story. And yet, it’s not that simple. In each colorful double-page spread, the leaves are arranged in order to form figures: a man, barnyard animals, farm crops, etc., whatever supports the text. As we advance through the story, we realize something different about the book. The top edges of the pages aren’t cut straight; they swoop to become horizon lines that change with each page turn, simulating the colorful rolling hills of autumn. What a wonderful surprise! Who would have thought of that technique? It’s perfect for the story. The leaves are close at hand, and yet your eye catches the distant landscape, just as it might in real life.
What I like most about this book is that it is educational in a subtle way. It doesn’t scream, “Here are leaf projects for you to try!” It merely tells a story using leaves, and lets the readers become inspired to gather up and create leaf creatures of their own. In other words, teaching and leading by example. On the end-sheet of the front and back covers, sample leaves are each identified by tree name — again, with subtlety. If you want to know the names of the trees they came from, fine, there they are. If you are too young (or too old!) to care, then the words do not intrude on your view of the leaves or the enjoyment of the book. I can see that reading this book to a group of observant youngsters would take quite a while. There’s so much to see, and you might not catch it all the first time through. “Leaf Man” requires multiple readings.
This is a beautiful, educational picture book that will appeal to all ages. It should be mandatory for nature center libraries and elementary school libraries.
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|Simple text enhanced with a big dose of creativity!,
My husband bought this for our two-year old, and we love reading it together with her. The text is simple, as it traces the journey of Leaf Man…the leaves used are magnificent in their colors…some bold, some subdued, but all unique and beautiful. I have since done some basic art projects with my daughter using this book as inspiration. We collect leaves wherever we go and hope to create a little book of our own!
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|It’s Nice but… a review of Lois Ehlert’s “Leaf Man”,
Wow, lots of people apparently like this book, but I can only judge by the reactions of my children to the book, and they didn’t really like it that much. Certainly not as much as some of Ms. Ehlert’s other works like “Snowballs” and “Growing Vegetable Soup”.
I think the principal reason they didn’t go bonkers over “Leaf Man” is that there really wasn’t much of story. Leaf Man (or Leaf Guy as we call him) blew around a lot, but it wasn’t as if he had any opinion about the process or that there was any drama.
Three Stars. The artwork was good and, as always, very creative– the source of much discussion and our own art project– but when you get down to it, Leaf Man just blew around. Worth checking out at the library.
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