COMBINE DISPATCHES

COMBINE DISPATCHES
There's so much going on in November, especially for readers.
Children's Book Week ends today, and the Children's Book Council shone the spotlight on authors and artists. In classrooms across the country, teachers celebrated with extra reading and related activities. This year's theme was "Book Time," but it's not too late to celebrate by making extra time to read together as a family.
A great book to share with early readers, especially second-graders, is "Gooney Bird Greene" (Houghton Mifflin, $15) by Newbery Medal-winning author Lois Lowry. Lowry writes for readers of all ages, always with wonderful, memorable characters. Gooney Bird strikes me as a perfect character to keep flying high for many books to come. She's a funny second-grader with an unusual sense of style, a lot of confidence and a gift for telling stories. Any young student will enjoy this story read aloud.
American heritage
Of course, November also means gathering with family to celebrate Thanksgiving.
What's on your Thanksgiving menu? Turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie? When the Pilgrims sat down for that famous first dinner, they served some of the same things we eat now, but not in the same way. A great book is the latest in the "Don't Know Much About ..." series by Kenneth C. Davis. In "Don't Know Much About the Pilgrims" (HarperCollins, $15.99), you'll get a healthy serving of facts about the lives of Pilgrims, including the children.
All of the books in this smart series offer facts, explanations and kid-friendly illustrations by S.D. Schindler, and by the time you've finished with "The Pilgrims," or any of Davis' other books, you and your young reader will know plenty!
It's a good month (Native American Heritage Month) for introducing your reader to the latest character in the American Girl series, Kaya. "Meet Kaya" (American Girl, $12.95) is the first of the books about a spirited American Indian girl, set in the past.
"The Legend of Blue Jacket" by Michael P. Spradlin (HarperCollins, $15.99) is in picture-book format but is a more complex story for young children about a young American kidnapped as a child who becomes a brave Indian warrior in the days of Daniel Boone and the American frontier. This is the first book for children for the author.
More fall offerings
"Maisy's Seasons" by Lucy Cousins (Candlewick Press, $8.99); ages: 2 to 4.
Spin the wheels and lift the flaps on this hide-and-seek board book, featuring Maisy the cute white mouse. This big book, with bold illustrations by Cousins, will help little people understand the changing seasons and the fun things to do in each.
In the fall, see what Maisy digs in her garden and plucks from the tree, then in winter flip a flap to see the snow fall, a snowball fly and a snowman rise. In the spring, there are new babies on the farm, and in the summer, Maisy hits the beach.
"Apples Here!" by Will Hubbell (Albert Whitman & amp; Co., $15.95); ages: 3 to 8
Follow apples through a year of developing, from tiny buds and beautiful blossoms to applesauce for Hanukkah and apple cider, to leftovers that feed wild animals. Hubbell's bright illustrations make you long for a big apple to bite.
He uses two pages in the back of the hardback book to describe how apples are pollinated and grow, and their symbolism and place in history.
"Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf" by Lois Ehlert (Harcourt Brace & amp; Co., $16); ages: 3 to 8
The bright red and yellow leaves on the cover of this hardback book will make you want to pick it up and trace your finger along the raised veins of the leaves. Inside, Ehlert made textural collages of roots, seeds, leaves and paint to celebrate the seasons in the life of a sugar maple tree.
Follow it from a tiny seed pod spinning off a tree and escaping a squirrel in the forest to the author's front yard, where it grew tall and changed with the seasons. The most vibrant, of course, is fall, when the sugar maple leaves turn crimson and gold.
Pages in the back of the book tell the parts of the trees and how to plant and care for them.
"Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden" by George Levenson (Tricycle Press, $7.95 paperback); ages: 3 to 8
Levenson follows the pumpkins as they grow from a seed to a great orange gourd, but it's Shmuel Thaler's photographs that you will love.
His vivid photos capture great mounds of bright-orange pumpkins, tiny green pumpkin plants that soon trail over every available surface. The canary-yellow blossoms in midsummer soon lead to tiny pumpkins, picking time and, of course, jack-o'-lanterns!
Levenson gives step-by-step instructions in the back on how to grow pumpkins.
"Johnny Appleseed" by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Ben & eacute;t (Margaret K. McElderry Books, $16); ages: 4 to 8
We've all heard the tall tales about gentle John Chapman, who wandered across the United States with a tin pan on his head, communing with nature, looking pretty raggedy and planting apple seeds that grew into trees.
In this hardback, though, it's S.D. Schindler's humorous drawings that show him sleeping in a tree, wandering west and always planting that make it fun to read.