A Book of Seasons

by Alice Provensen, Martin Provensen

An easy-to-read description of the continuously changing seasons.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Nonfiction, Nature, School

29 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Alice Provensen collaborated with her late husband, Martin, on numerous highly acclaimed picture books, including the Caldecott Medal-winning The Glorious Flight and Nancy Willard's Newbery Medal-winning A Visit to William Blake's Inn, which was also a Caldecott Honor Book. The Provensens have been on the New York Times list of the Ten Best Illustrated Books eight times.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A trip though the year is highlighted by gorgeous illustrations featuring seasonal activities like sledding, maple sugaring, gardening and raking. Before you know it, a year has gone by, and it's time for the excitement of winter's first snow fall again. (Oh, if only we could get that excited about snow in April!)










A poignant and sweet look at how quickly time (and life!) flies by and a reminder to appreciate each day we're given.

[Luisa Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alice and Martin Provensen really capture the sweetness of discovering the seasons as a child. The text and illustrations are simplistic, yet magical. It’s so hard to choose a favorite season when you’re looking at their book!

Ages: 3 - 8

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Emma Sedlak · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It’s maple syrup time!”

[Hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about all of the seasons. It starts by describing winter. It begins to describe winter as the time to build snowmans and the time of the year to wear your mittens and boots. Winter is the cold season and the time to bring out your snow shovels. It goes on to describe how the snow starts to melt and flowers start to poke out of the snow. Spring has come, and sometimes it’s rainy and sometimes it’s sunny. It describes how spring is breezy and everything starts to bloom. Summer follows spring and now the days are longer and the nights are warm. The grass is green and you can run around barefoot. It goes on to say that summer doesn’t last long and fall approaches when the leaves start to turn red, orange, and gold. Fall is the time to play in the leaves and to cut firewood. I’ll stop here so I don’t spoil the rest of it.
My overall impression of this book is really good. I thought it was simple and to the point. It describes all of the seasons extremely well and I think any student would learn a lot from this information. The pictures were really fun and exciting to look at. I think it would catch a lot of eyes and would keep children intrigued. If I was teaching a younger grade level, I would 100% have this book in my classroom. I don’t really have anything bad to say about this book. I thought the design elements such as color and harmony brought it together really well. Colors are extremely important in a book like this because that’s how people associate seasons. The illustrator did a great job with it. Really awesome childrens book.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of us have a book or two from their early childhood that we seek out as adults with memories based on half-remembered (and frequently misremembered) details. This picture book was one of mine, and I just found it! The only particulars I had to work off of were 1) an illustration of an ice-skating boy positioned with his skates perpendicular to one another (incidentally, this gave me the conviction that this is how one skated), and 2) the last page depicted a garden archway covered in flowers.

As for the book itself, it's a joyful look at all the fun things there are to do as the seasons change (assuming you live in a clime with changing seasons). The illustrations are cute, and I'm delighted to have successfully hunted it down, despite it being out of print and not having aged well with respect to diverse representation.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was informational for young children. It teaches children about how the weather changes and what to expect from the environment during each season. I thought it was interesting how the book encourages children to take off their shoes and spend the whole day outdoors. Then the writer suggests the reader go play in the leaves.

I liked the book, I can see how useful it could be to a very young class. It was a little dry for my personal taste, but it has potential.

[Stephanie Littig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of course, I love this book because they start with winter, my favorite time of the year! I like how they cycle through each season and into the next. Many fun things in this book for each season but also they talk about the weather of each season. I like this book and I think children would too. Cute book. Quick read and good for beginners.

[Kadie Speller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book to teach the four different seasons to children. This book tells students about the weather during each season, what you should wear, and what you usually do during each season. Winter is cold and sometimes snows so you can build a snowman. Summer days are long and you can play outside all day long.

[Amanda Ramos · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never read this book before I found it very informational for children. It is a fun book that talks about all the seasons. It gives the children's alot of ideas of things that can be done during the different seasons. Also gives them discriptions of how things change outside and what attire they should wear.

[Madison Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this would be a great book to incorporate when introducing seasons because it shows what happens within each season. After reading this book I think that I could have my students make a flipbook on the different seasons and the types of things you can do within each season.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read through this as we said goodbye to it now that it has been long outgrown. It's a darling book, very simple, about the wonderful things each season has to offer. Perfect for preschoolers to hear and simple enough for early readers to enjoy on their own.

[Courtney Ingraham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This would be a great book to do a read-aloud when covering the seasons in a kindergarten class

[Willow Redd · Rating 3 out of 5]

A young reader's introduction to the seasons told with cute illustrations.

Another library sale find for my Little Free Library.

[Riani Halim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely book for little one.

[♥♣Mary♦♠ If She So Pleases · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very beautiful book!

[Little Champs]

3032

[Lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute. Slightly educational. Nice illustrations

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not like any other Seasons books I’ve read. It actually covered the four seasons and then covered winter and spring again, so a kid could see the cycle!

[Jessica Shepherd · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book was kinda decent. Obviously I don't know Spanish, but I do know that I really like it for the simple reason, that they put the words in both Spanish and English. That is very beneficial for readers who can't read the opposite language. It's a simple book for starters and is very detailed.

[Nicole Bell]

I recently used this book in a lesson on seasons. It was important to me to help the children understand that the seasons are continuous. This book goes thru the cycle of seasons one and a half times. The illustrations and text leave room for several open ended questions. Here are a few of the questions that I asked the children:
What type of clothing should you wear in the Spring?
How would the sand feel on your bare feet and between your toes?
How many butterflies do you see on this page?
Who found the child in the leaves?
I created a prop by cutting a large circle into four equal wedges. I then glued cotton balls on one to represent winter. On the next wedge I glued fabric flowers to represent spring. I glued sand on the third to represent summer. On the last wedge I glued plastic acorns and red, brown and gold leaves to represent fall. The children loved the prop. At the end of the story, I was very surprised by the fact that each of the children came up to feel the completed circle.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

May 2017: Good little living book which simply presents the idea of each season and how it relates to the other seasons. My boys loved the pictures- their eyes shone when they saw what the children in the book were doing on each page.

A great choice for early elementary nature study.
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Dec. 2018: Got this out recently because of the winter scenes which I thought the three-year-old would like- and I was right. He's been asking me to read it over and over. And I don't mind because this is a really decent little book. Not inane at all, plenty to think about in the text and to see in the pictures.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Book of Seasons takes the reader through things they are able to do in each season, what happens to the outside during the seasons, and how to dress during the season.

Provensen does not have fantastic illustrations to go with the great information the text provides to the reader about the seasons. While the book is colorful I feel the words are very descriptive and in turn enhance the pictures. It uses a circular narrative to explain how the seasons turn into one another. I also enjoy how the text helps the reader get excited about all of the different joys each season can bring.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid introduction to the four seasons. The book would resonate more for those from Eastern Canada or USA (e.g. maple sugar run is specific to that region).

The illustrations are beautiful. the book, however, is showing its age as there is no ethnic diversity among the white children shown. On the other hand, it was a real plus to see little girls active in the same types of activities as the little boys.

[sasasa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just got a copy of this for the boys, and it was very fun to read with S. and see all of these images that were so familiar from 25-30 years ago... He was really into it, and is working out the seasons concept these days. I love the illustrations of course, and the text is sweet, but not amazing like some of the other books she illustrated.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for 3-5yo to introduce seasons. I love the Provensens' illustrations. Alice Provensen Martin Provensen

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book about enjoying the seasons in New England. It may not be relevant to life everywhere, but I remember the pictures from my childhood and my one-year-old loves it too.

[Adi Sharar]

good

[KhiN’Millie Friesen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmmm... in Kenya we don't have four seasons. How many do we have? When we are in Canada we will see Summer, Fall annnnnnnd.... Winter! I want to jump in the leaves and build a snowman too. - khi 3

[Rose Stewart]

It's a good book