Product Description

All about apples, from pollination to picking and eating.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #364972 in Books
• Published on: 2000-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780823416691
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2-In her characteristic, easily understood, and straightforward style, Gibbons gives an overview of apples. She traces their history in America, shows their parts, and explains their growth, harvest, and uses. Three pages illustrate many different varieties, and a concluding page lists interesting facts. Betsy Maestro's How Do Apples Grow? (HarperCollins, 1992) delves more thoroughly into the fertilization and growth of the fruit as does Bruce McMillan's Apples, How They Grow (Houghton, 1979; o.p.). Dorothy Hinshaw Patent's Apple Trees (Lerner, 1997) is more complex as is Charles Micucci's The Life and Times of the Apple (Orchard, 1992). Gibbons's own The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree (Harcourt, 1984) has some of the same information found here. The recipe for apple pie is essentially the same, and both have a diagram of a cider press. However, the focus of the two books is very different. With its cheerful, bright illustrations and clear, simple presentation, this title will be the perfect pick for the perennial fall apple-book requests.
Louise L. Sherman, formerly at Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJ
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Using her familiar appealing, color-washed drawings and minimal text, Gibbons spotlights a favorite fruit. Plenty of information appears in both words and images, including identification of the basic parts of the apple; some historical scenes of the apple in America (including both Johnny Appleseed and a picture of smiling Native American and Pilgrim families sharing a large bowl of shiny reds); and the apple's progress through the seasons, from blossom to fruit to harvest to Halloween bobbing and caramel coating. The final pages include pictures of different apple varieties; instructions on how to plant and care for an apple tree, bake a pie, make cider; and a back page of random fun facts. Although the book lacks organization and cohesion, there is still plenty here for young botanists who may be encountering clearly explained words such as dormant and pollination for the first time. Teachers putting together elementary science units about growth cycles and food production may also find this useful. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From Kirkus Reviews
This colorful and accessible title offers the scientific as well as the practical for the beginning reader. Gibbons (My Baseball Book, p. 475, etc.) provides a brief history of the apple, an explanation of how the apple grows from flower to fruit, and how apples are picked, processed, and sold. She also provides a recipe for apple pie, shows how an apple press makes apple cider, and illustrates some popular apple varieties. Each page has only a few lines of text, and a full-color drawing. For example, Gibbons states: "An apple is a firm, crisp fleshy fruit with a hard center called a core. The core has five seed chambers." The accompanying illustration shows an apple inside and out, with core, stem, skin, seed chambers, and seeds carefully labeled. She concludes with additional statistics and facts about apples. Betsy Maestro's How Do Apples Grow (1992), a Let's-Read-and-Find Out Science title on the same reading level, provides much more detail on the development of the apple, discussing and labeling flower parts pollen, pollination, and the developing fruit. This title illustrates more apple varieties, and includes a recipe. School and public libraries will certainly welcome this addition to the crop. (Nonfiction. 6-8) -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

My Favorite Apple Pick for Children
I purchased this book last fall for our kindergarten "apple and pumpkin" theme of learning. The short text and big, colorful pictures make this an excellent choice for 4 to 8 year olds. Yet, I was surprised by how much I learned from this book! This non-fiction text covers the growth of the apple tree and it's fruit with plenty of labels and a simple definition for each new word.

A brief history of apple trees in America is explained, but I found the labels and the sequencing from flower bud to fruit to be the most educational part for myself and my 5 year old students. The information about how a flower bud becomes a fruit also applies to pumpkin growth, which became a handy opportunity to reinforce the new knowledge.

In addition to the short history lesson and the description of apple growth, the book includes illustrations of different apple varieties, the fall activities of caramel apples and apple bobbing, and some general information about the apple tree. Overall, this book rates 5 stars and an A+ with this teacher.

Great apple book for teachers and parents
Apples by Gail Gibbons is educational and entertaining. This book is best for kindergarten through third grade students. It has lovely, colorful, full page pictures. The text is mainly found at the bottom of the page. Elementary age students will need some vocabulary words and phrases defined for them such as grown commercially, bushel, stamen, pollen, stigma, pollination, harvest, tart, prune, and fertilized. As another reviewer pointed out, Gail Gibbons' Apples book introduces ideas that are revisited in another of her books, The Pumpkin Book. Apples is a great book for September and The Pumpkin Book is great for October. Parents and teachers will find this book useful and enjoyable - so will the kids.