9 Wholesome Fall Picture Books

Adding wholesome, values-based children's books to your home library that you don't have to pre-read and vet is only made possible by Big Sky Life Books' strict vetting process.

Watching the seasons come and go with children is delightful! Harvesting the garden, watching the birds fly south, observing tiny creatures preparing for winter and the best part about Fall - jumping in piles of leaves!

So many consider the fall season to be their favorite (including me)! I love the cool mornings, sunny days and the colors of the trees and grasses changing all around me.

Enjoy these delightfully wholesome picture books for the fall season:

Children's Books For the Fall Season

Ox-Cart Man

• Written by Donald Hall
• Pictures by Barbara Cooney

An incredibly popular picture book and winner of the Caldecott Medal in 1980.

My favorite theme in this book is definitely 'family unity'. The entire family contributes and works together. The oxcart man packs his goods - the wool from his sheep, the shawl his wife made, the mittens his daughter knitted, and the linen they wove. He packs the birch brooms his son carved, and even a bag of goose feathers from the barnyard geese.

They figure out what they'll need to last all winter..."He packed potatoes they dug from their garden - but first he counted out potatoes enough to eat all winter and potatoes for seed next spring."

The journey to the market is a long one. When he arrives, he sells everything - including his cart and ox! He then buys the things his family will need for the winter and buys a bag of wintergreen peppermints for a treat.

The family makes and sells everything and then starts all over again for the next year. So many valuable lessons in this book for our children...and for us!

Ox-Cart Man is a wonderful story and Barbara Cooney's illustrations are gorgeous as always!

Winter is Coming

• Written by Tony Johnston
• Illustrated by Jim LaMarche

Follow a young girl through the months of September, October and November as she observes the world around her prepare for winter.

Each day, she goes to the woods with her nature pad and binoculars - quietly watching the world around her. A red fox, a mama bear, woodpeckers, chipmunks, skunks...and more!

This poetic book is calming to read - and will inspire your own nature walks this fall!

Jim LaMarche brings the story to life with vivid colors and rich illustrations.

Sleep Tight Farm

• Written by Eugenie Doyle
• Illusrated by Becca Stadtlander

Follow along and watch as the farm is 'put to bed' for the winter. We really enjoy this tranquil story showing the work that must be done as the farm transitions seasons and prepares for the snow of winter.

I love books that show a family working together...we need more of them!

Chickens, crops, hoophouses, etc - so much to be done before wintertime. This story doubles as a bedtime story with the repetitous 'goodnight' throughout the book.

The Little Yellow Leaf

• Written and Illustrated by Carin Berger

This book is a fun unusual size! It's tall and narrow - like the trees full of leaves in the fall!

Read the story about a leaf who is just not ready to fall. No, not ready yet. He thinks he's all alone until a red leaf at the top of the tree is also still hanging on.

Will they take the adventurous fall to the ground together?!

What fun to read a story from the perspective of a leaf. Enjoy this book before going outside to jump in a pile of leaves!

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves

• Written by Julia Rawlinson
• Illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke

A Sweet and gentle story about a little fox with a favorite tree. Autumn arrives and the leaves begin to turn color and fall off. Fletcher is worried!

The little fox tries to fix the tree by reattaching the leaves - but it doesn't work.

Follow young Fletcher as he observes the changing of the seasons and enjoy an ice-covered tree at the end of the book decorated with glitter!

In November

• Written by Cynthia Rylant
• Illustrated by Jill Kastner

The Earth is growing quiet

The trees know it is time to be still

The air is full of good-byes and well-wishes

...and dogs lie before the fire

This is a cozy book about animals seeking food and shelter for the winter as the earth grows cold.

It highlights Thanksgiving - when people carry pies to each other's homes and talk by crackling woodstoves...

The book is poetic and the rich illustrations are delightful. I love the final page:

"In November, at winter's gate, the stars are brittle. The sun is a sometime friend. And the world has tucked her children in, with a kiss on their heads, till spring."

The Pumpkin Runner

• Written by Marsha Diane Arnold
• Pictures by Brad Sneed

This is a wonderful story based on the real-life exploits of a 61-year-old Australian farmer - a humble hero.

Wearing gumboots and overalls and accompanied by his faithful Yellow Dog - he beat out younger opponents in a 542 mile run between Sydney and Melbourne.

Nearly all the sheep ranchers in Blue Gum Valley rode horses or drove jeeps to check on their sheep...but Joshua Summerhayes liked to run...and eat pumpkin :)

He felt such an energy from the sun-filled pumpkin that he pulled on his orange gumboots, shuffled a dance in the dusty earth and took off running...

This book is fun and demonstrates humility in action - can't beat that!

Fall Leaves

• Written by Loretta Holland
• Illustrated by Elly MacKay

The illustrations in this book are delightful! Each page showcases something new: flowers leave, rain falls, leaves fall, temperature falls...and provides information about the season of autumn.

For example, under “Leaves Fall,” we find out why leaves change their color as they prepare for winter. A great book for teaching Science to early grades!

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn

Written and Illustrated by Kenard Pak

Enjoy this cheerful story of a young girl saying hello to all the things that define late summer and early fall - the thunder, the flowers, the little critters - and they answer back, explaining what they're doing as the seasons change.

The illustrations are beautiful, full of the seasonal vibrant colors as we say goodbye to summer and hello to autumn.

Summary

I hope the fall season brings time to slow down and make treasured memories with the children in your life. Take a walk and observe the seasons changing. Curl up with some apple cider and read these delightful stories.

Don't forget to jump in a pile of leaves ~

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