Hello, Fall! by Deborah Diesen - OPTIONAL

Hello, Fall! by Deborah Diesen, illustrated by Lucy Fleming. PICTURE BOOK. Farrar Straus Giroux (Macmillan), 2018. $17. 9780374307547

BUYING ADVISORY: Pre-K, EL (K-3) - OPTIONAL.

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

A girl and what appears to be her grandpa are illustrated exploring different elements of fall. They watch squirrels bury nuts, listen to the leaves, eat apples, pick out pumpkins, and more. The text is told in a nostalgic tone, asking “do you remember when we…” The illustrations are a vivid display of fall colors.

I feel very neutral about this book. It was a good basic book about the charms of fall, but didn’t have any extra zing. The little girl is cutely illustrated, but the very small hat on the grandpa was distracting to me. The nostalgic element, constantly referring to the past, didn’t really add much value to the text. It might appeal to a reader who has lost someone special recently. 

Jen Wecker, HS English Teacher