Our Seasons

By Grace Lin and Ranida T. McKneally

Illustrated by Grace Lin

Watertown, MA:  Charlesbridge, 2006

Lin and McKneally's colorful picturebook Our Seasons is a great informational text for the classrooms. The text starts out with a discussion of why we have season (from the tilt of the earth and its orbit of the sun) before going into each of the four seasons.  Every section contains multiple pages, each focusing around an essential questions children might have about the different seasons.  Spring, for instance, starts out with, "What makes a thunderstorm?" and explains the science behind lightning and thunder in an understandable manner.  (I actually did not know!)

Another great aspect of its book is that each page is paired with a haiku about the essential question.  On the thunderstorm page, for instance, the haiku reads, "Lily hears thunder./'You don't have to yell!' she calls./Still, the sky grumbles."  When used in the classroom, this book could be an introduction not only to the seasons, but also to different styles of poetry--students could have so much fun writing their own haikus about the weather.

The illustrations in this book are great.  Each page shows children enjoying each type of weather in ways that children would be able to relate to.  The page about snow, for instance, shows a boy tasting a snowflake; anyone who has ever seen snow will have had this experience.  The colors used are bright and inviting, and Lin makes it possible for the reader to interact with the text, the poetry, and the imagery to learn more about the seasons around us.