Today’s Rhyme Time, storytime for children 18 months through 3 years, featured rhymes, songs, and books about fall.We started out with David Ezra Stein’s Leaves (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2007.) This is bear’s first year and he is disturbed by the leaves falling off the true. Not so upset that he can’t go to sleep though. And when he awakens in spring, new leaves welcome him. Another book with a similar theme is Carin Berger’s Little Yellow Leaf (Greenwillow, 2008), which is about a leaf that just keeps hanging on . . . even until there is snow on the ground. I appreciated the careful word choice in this one, “Not ready, thought the Little Yellow Leaf as a heavy harvest moon bloomed amber in the starry sky.” Berger’s illustrations are also 
notable, and the book is beautifully designed and printed on thick, heavy paper. For preschoolers there is also Leaf Trouble, by Jonathan Emmett, illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church (Chicken House/Scholastic, 2009) about a little squirrel who is also disturbed by the leaves falling and tries to put them back on the trees. Though the illustration styles of all three are very different, they are all very appealing.
We sang “Falling Leaves” to the tune of “Frere Jacques”:
Falling leaves, falling leaves,
All around, all around,
Twirling twirling twirling
Twirling twirling twirling
To the ground, to the ground.
We also did the “Furry, Furry Squirrel” action rhyme from Early Literacy Storytimes @ your library. I introduced this one by saying it was a rhyme about a squirrel and asking the children if they had seen a squirrel and what it looked like. I had three puppets hidden under a blanket (a raccoon, a skunk, a squirrel). We talked about how squirrels have fluffy tails, so we looked at each tail to find the squirrel.
Furry, furry squirrel
Hurry, hurry hop
Scurry up the tree trunk
To the very top.
When you reach the branches
Hurry, turn around
Furry, furry squirrel
Scurry to the ground.
Additional books for preschool and older children include Leaf
Jumpers by Carole Gerber, illustrated by Leslie Evans (Charlesbridge, 2004), Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert (Harcourt, 2005), with the latter inspiring children to make their own leaf creatures.
