My Leaf Book
Written and Illustrated by Monica Wellington
Leaves change color and fall breezily to the ground every year. Children love to catch them, collect them and figure them out.
Monica Wellington’s new book helps them identify leaves and put them in a book of their own making. While this book is fiction because the little girl is not real, Wellington has included a great deal of authentic science. Her depiction of various leaf types is well done and the leaves are matched with the names of the trees from which they come.
Grade one, grade two, and even grade three readers will be able to use the book for basic leaf identification. However, the scientific notes placed in text boxes on the pages illustrating true leaves are done in tiny print that will require adult help for some children to read and decipher.
Librarians and teachers can use this book successfully as a read aloud for pre-school through first grades. While the book meets core curriculum standards for literacy in the areas of picture clues, comparing and contrasting, separating fact from fiction, it also fulfills standards for natural science in the elementary grades. This book deserves a second look as first glance will sell it short of its educational value.
Title: My Leaf Book- Author/Illustrator: Monica Wellington
- Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers/ Penguin, 2015
- Reviewer: Elizabeth Swartz
- Format: Hardcover, 32 pages
- ISBN: 978-0-8037-4141-6
- Genre: Picture Book
- Grade level: PreK to 3
- Extras: End pages contain a list of leaf projects for readers to do