How do you explain autumn to a young child?

Through what they can see and touch: leaves changing colour and falling, wind, puddles, darkness coming earlier. One tree looked at every morning on the way to school shows the change better than an explanation about the Earth's tilt.

Is a seasonal book worth buying?

Yes, if the story is about more than the season. A book only about autumn is read a few weeks a year; a book about waiting or friendship with autumn as its backdrop is read all year. This is an observation: no study has measured how long these books are read.

From what age is an autumn book good?

From two, a book where you name and point at what you saw outside. From about four, a story in which autumn is the backdrop to something else: waiting, a friendship, a new start.

Theme · Autumn

Autumn books for children: leaves, school and stories that last

3 sources

Leaves to collect, wind that pushes, darkness that comes earlier: autumn is the season you can see and touch the most. In Ireland it begins with the new school year and ends with Halloween. Here's why children grasp this season before the others, and a piece of advice you rarely read before buying a seasonal book.

Why children grasp autumn before the other seasons

Seasons are an abstract idea. A three-year-old doesn't understand that the Earth tilts. What they understand is what they can touch, and autumn offers more of that than any other season: leaves to gather, conkers or acorns for a pocket, puddles you're allowed to jump in, wind on your face.

There's also the pace. Summer barely changes for weeks; autumn changes in days. A child who passes the same tree every morning on the way to school notices the difference. It's a first grasp of time passing, and it happens outdoors, on foot.

In Ireland, autumn starts with school. Children start primary school in September, in Junior Infants; a child must be at least four on 1 September of the year they start.¹ For a child, it's the season of new things: a new class, new friends, a new route, along which the trees change colour. For the first day itself, see our page on the first day of school.

Halloween, and what to know before buying a seasonal book

Autumn ends with Halloween, which has its roots in Ireland. Its roots are in Samhain, a festival that marked the start of winter; the first lanterns were carved from turnips, long before pumpkins.²³ Our page on Halloween has more.

Seasonal books have a flaw you notice only after buying. They're read for six weeks, then put away for eleven months. Between two and four, a child forgets almost everything in eleven months, and by the next autumn the book is new again, but it has also become too young for them.

The books that last are set in autumn without being only about autumn. The story is about something else, waiting, making a friend, dreaming, and the season is the backdrop. Those read just as well in May.

This is an observation, not a measurement. We found no study on how long seasonal picture books are actually read, so we claim none.

Or a story of their own

If your child should be the hero

Your child follows a leaf the wind carries from the school yard to the woods, and discovers along the way everything that's getting ready for winter.
On the first day of school, your child and a squirrel each start their new season, one in a classroom, the other at its hiding places, and compare their days.
On an autumn evening, it gets dark so early that your child walks home in the dark, and discovers who lives outside when the days get shorter.

Create a book about autumn

Frequently asked questions

How do you explain autumn to a young child?: Through what they can see and touch: leaves changing colour and falling, wind, puddles, darkness coming earlier. One tree looked at every morning on the way to school shows the change better than an explanation about the Earth's tilt.
Where does Halloween come from?: Its roots are in Ireland, in Samhain, a festival that marked the start of winter; the first lanterns were carved from turnips, long before pumpkins.
Is a seasonal book worth buying?: Yes, if the story is about more than the season. A book only about autumn is read a few weeks a year; a book about waiting or friendship with autumn as its backdrop is read all year. This is an observation: no study has measured how long these books are read.
From what age is an autumn book good?: From two, a book where you name and point at what you saw outside. From about four, a story in which autumn is the backdrop to something else: waiting, a friendship, a new start.

Sources

1.Citizens Information: Starting primary school.What it confirms: A child must be at least four on 1 September of the year they start primary school.
2.Ireland.ie: Halloween.What it confirms: Ireland as the home of Halloween, with its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain.
3.Wake Forest University Press: The Irish origins of Halloween, five fun facts about Samhain.What it confirms: Samhain marked the start of winter; carved turnips before pumpkins.

Other themes: Animals, Dinosaurs, Rabbits, Moles, Elephants, Witches, Unicorns and Fire engines. Read also: Naming feelings. Or children's books by age, growing up, topic by topic and all the illustration styles.