Apple Picking Time

This book exceeded my expectations. It is a wonderful book for autumn and harvest celebrations. It is also a good book for thinking about differences in social class and the questions of children and work and participation in community. There are undertones here that are not fully discussed. It is obvious that the family in the story is picking apples for pay. It isn't just a community harvest that is mutually beneficial. It is also an important economic activity for the family and the little girl is earning real money to help her family. But that aspect isn't spelled out very explicitly. The setting is clearly a less wealthy rural area. Some of the details may be unfamiliar to city dwellers but will delight those with rural roots, such as the mail boxes with flags up or down, long dirt roads and the unique feel of a long line of cars and trucks headed out to work in the predawn.

I wasn't at all impressed with this book for a few reasons. Although the pictures were beautiful and tried most desperatly to pull us into the story, we just couldn't get to the same place that the author must have been while writing the book. Maybe after reading just the first sentence: "Sometime after summer is spent but before jack-o'-lanterns are lit, it's apple picking time.", which seems to assume that everyone is interested in celebrating Halloween.In addition to this, the book speaks twice about "the purple ticket" that gets punched with a half moon. I still can't figure out what that is for. There are no explanations about the meaning of this and that is frustrating because it seems important but only the writer knows why. The sad part is that he kept this detail to himself and it's annoying.We tried to enjoy this book, but at this point its end will be in our Goodwill pile.

It was the perfect book to explain the economics of working. The book goes well with the need to work and using the word scarity.

Great

Wanted to use as mentor text for K writer's workshop personal narrative but in the end chose not to. Story and illustration not accessible enough for 5 and 6 year olds.

awesome

Great story

My oldest son has always had a hard time getting to sleep. We struggled for his first 18-24 months until a friend who is a fourth grade teacher (Hi Amy!) gave us this book and we started reading this at the end of our bedtime routine. Now, 6 years and one little brother later, this is still the last book we read before going to bed.I'm absolutely biased as I think I've read this book about 2000 times now. The story line is wonderful, the pictures are captivating, and the rhythm of the (now well-rehearsed) sentences is mesmerizing. Now, if I could just find a real orchard to visit nearby...