Are You Ready for Fall? (Lightning Bolt Books - Our Four Seasons)

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Sheila Anderson

s

Lerner Publications Company Minneapolis

l i a g o i b A hia o T aok i h C

Copyright

© 2010 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review. Lerner Publications Company A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. 241 First Avenue North Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A. Website address: www.lernerbooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Anderson, Sheila. Are You Ready for Fall? / by Sheila M. Anderson. p. cm. — (Lightning bolt booksTM – Our four seasons) Includes index. ISBN 978–0–7613–4586–2 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper) TOâ•‹COME  1. Autumn —Juvenile literature. I. Title. QB637.7.A53 2010 508.2—dc22 2009016408 Manufactured in the United States of America 1 – BP – 12/15/09

eISBN 978-0-7613-5964-7

Contents Sights and Sounds of Fall Fall Weather

Fall Activities

page

4

page

8

page

14

The Fall World

page

18

Winter Is Coming

page

23

Why Do Leaves Change Color? page

28

Glossary

Further Reading

Index

30

31

32

page

page

page

Sights and Sounds of Fall Crunch! Crunch! What

is making that sound? Someone is walking through crisp, dry leaves.

4

Fall is here. Squirrels hop about, swishing their bushy tails. They gather smooth, brown acorns. Their cheeks are puffed up like popcorn balls.

Squirrels collect acorns and hide them in tree trunks.

5

Leaves on trees turn bright yellow, flame orange, and vibrant red. They glow in the bright sunlight.

6

This sunflower has turned dry and brown.

Grass turns yellow. Plants and flowers turn brown and shrivel on their stems and branches. 7

Fall Weather Wind whooshes through the trees. Dead leaves float and spiral as they blow to the ground.

Dead leaves blow into a pond.

8

le of leave i p a s to e ak p l m

ay

in .

Let ’s

o t r a ke e m i T !

9

The air is getting cool. People put on warm sweaters and long pants when they go outdoors. Better zip up your jacket!

10

The air is dry. A chilly breeze blows my hair.

Be sure to wear a sweater on a cool fall day.

11

An icy layer of white frost coats the grass and leaves on the ground.

12

The frost disappears before lunchtime.

In the afternoon, it’s warm enough to play outside without a heavy coat.

13

Fall Activities When fall arrives, children go back to school. It is fun to see friends and favorite teachers again. I wonder who will be in my class.

14

A school bus rumbles to a stop.

Families pick ripe red apples at the orchard.

Let’s make a pie!

15

People harvest vegetables from their gardens. They will store them to eat when winter comes.

This man picked squash from his garden.

16

Farmers harve st c ro ps m fro

ir fi the

elds 17

The Fall World Bears eat lots of berries and leaves. They grow fat enough to survive while they hibernate through the winter. They won’t eat again until spring.

18

Other animals hide food to eat during the winter months.

Beavers store twigs and bark to eat during the winter.

19

Pumpkins are bright orange and plump on their vines.

20

Pumpkins lie in a farmer’s field.

Th is ja p c

ake a pe m l l i w r fec n i k t . p n r e t m n a u ’o-l k-Â�

21

People gather seeds to plant in the spring.

Seeds pop out of a milkweed plant. The wind will blow them to a new home.

22

Winter Is Coming Soon, days begin to get shorter. It gets dark earlier.

23

The temperature begins to drop. Can you see your

breath?

24

Animals grow thick winter coats. This wolf has grown a warm, shaggy coat for the winter.

25

Birds begin flying south. Temperatures are warmer there. Flocks of Canada geese fly in the shape of the letter v.

26

Winter is on its way.

27

Why Do Leaves Change Color? Leaves get their green color from a chemical called chlorophyll. All leaves contain chlorophyll. Plants use it to make food. Plants make food from water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide (a gas in the air). Chlorophyll helps them to do this. When fall arrives, the chlorophyll in leaves breaks down. Then the green color in the leaves goes away. Reds, yellows, and oranges appear.

28

Bright reds, yellows, and oranges are in leaves all year long. But in spring and summer, chlorophyll covers them up!

29

Glossary acorn: the seed of an oak tree frost: a covering of tiny ice crystals that occurs when moisture on an object freezes

harvest: to pick or gather food hibernate: to spend winter in a sleeplike state jack-o’-lantern: a pumpkin with a face carved into it and a candle inside

shrivel: to dry up and wilt temperature: how warm or cold the air is

30

Further Reading Ehlert, Lois. Leaf Man. Orlando, Fl.: Harcourt, 2005. Enchanted Learning: Earth’s Seasons http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/ astronomy/planets/earth/seasons.shtml Glaser, Linda. It’s Fall! Minneapolis: Millbrook Press, 2002. Spinelli, Eileen. I Know It’s Autumn. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. Stein, David Ezra. Leaves. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2007.

31

Index acorns, 5 activities, 14–17 animals, 18–19, 25 apples, 15

plants, 7 pumpkins, 20–21

birds, 26

school, 14 seeds, 22 squirrels, 5

farmers, 17 frost, 12–13

rake, 9

temperature, 24, 26 harvest, 16–17 hibernate, 18

vegetables, 16

leaves, 4, 6, 8–9, 12, 18, 28–29

warm clothes, 10 weather, 8, 10–13

Photo Acknowledgments The images in this book are used with the permission of: © iStockphoto.com/Skip O'Donnell, p. 1; © Petr Gnuskin/Dreamstime.com, p. 2; © Adam Weiss/Taxi/Getty Images, p. 4; © Georgette Douwma/Photographer’s Choice/Getty Images, p. 5; © Karlene Schwartz, pp. 6, 7, 12, 20, 22, 25, 28; © Flirt/SuperStock, p. 8; © Brooke Slezak/Taxi/Getty Images, p. 9; © Donna Day/Stone/Getty Images, p. 10; © Sonya Farrell/Taxi/Getty Images, p. 11; © Christopher Robbins/Riser/Getty Images, p. 13; © Yellow Dog Productions/The Image Bank/Getty Images, p. 14; © Anne Ackerman/Taxi/Getty Images, p. 15; © Gwehndolehne/ Dreamstime.com, p. 16; © age fotostock/SuperStock, pp. 17, 23; © iStockphoto.com/Cory Johnson, p. 18; © Prisma/SuperStock, p. 19; © Gerry Lemmo, pp. 21, 26, 30; © iStockphoto. com/Paul Kline, p. 24; © Andrew Olney/OJO Images/Getty Images, p. 27; © Richard Price/ Photographer’s Choice/Getty Images, p. 29; © Ariel Skelley/Blend Images/Getty Images, p. 31. Front cover: © Elena Elisseeva/Dreamstime.com (top left); © iStockphoto.com/Ekaterina Fribus (top middle); © iStockphoto.com/Olivier Blondeau (top right); © Johner/Johner Images/Getty Images (bottom).

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Leaves are changing colors. The days are getting cooler. Farmers harvest crops. It’s time to carve a pumpkin! Do you know what season is here? It’s fall! What else happens in fall? Read this book to find out!

TM

Learn all about the different seasons in the Our Four Seasons series—part of the Lightning Bolt BooksTM collection. With high-energy designs, exciting photos, and fun text, Lightning Bolt BooksTM bring nonfiction topics to life!

Our Four Seasons Are Are Are Are

You You You You

Ready Ready Ready Ready

for for for for

Fall? Spring? Summer? Winter?