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Dappled Apples
In a frisky, festive celebration of fall, rhyming text and illustrations bring the delights of the season to life, from turning leaves and apple picking to pumpkins and Halloween costumes.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2001
1 person is currently reading
23 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
September 24, 2025
Just not my style.
Ages: 4 - 8
We had a little Johnny Appleseed/Apple celebration: watch my reel!
Content Considerations: pictures of jack-o-lanterns and children in costumes for Halloween.
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Ages: 4 - 8
We had a little Johnny Appleseed/Apple celebration: watch my reel!
Content Considerations: pictures of jack-o-lanterns and children in costumes for Halloween.
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide Content Considerations, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
If you’re considering a book or looking for a new title to read, check out my highly categorized shelves, read my reviews and Friend or Follow me to spiff up your feed with clean, wholesome, living books.
I have an Instagram account that’s pretty bookishly unique too!
December 22, 2020
This book is a great book for illustrating the whole month of October rather than just focusing on one aspect. It shows apple trees, fall leaves, and then Halloween.
The medium for the art is cut paper, and it's beautiful! But the images are also clear enough for young readers to recognize the children, trees, dogs, scarecrows, pumpkins and houses.
I read this book over Zoom to children ages 3 to 7 years old, and they all were fascinated by the images. I read the text to those children who had greater attention span. I just glossed the events for those who were more visual than verbal kids. But we did talk about various signs of autumn to help them better understand this seasons.
The medium for the art is cut paper, and it's beautiful! But the images are also clear enough for young readers to recognize the children, trees, dogs, scarecrows, pumpkins and houses.
I read this book over Zoom to children ages 3 to 7 years old, and they all were fascinated by the images. I read the text to those children who had greater attention span. I just glossed the events for those who were more visual than verbal kids. But we did talk about various signs of autumn to help them better understand this seasons.
February 5, 2019
Well, since I was looking for a book about apples for my unit, this was a huge disappointment. This may have colored my perception of it. It's NOT an apple book. It's an autumn/Halloween book. And since I'm not a fan of scary Halloween costumes, that was another strike against it for me. The text was fine, but nothing special. The art was pretty, but not enough to make up for everything I didn't like.
October 13, 2022
The illustration style (not really illustrations but paper cutouts) isn't my favorite and the book is very simple, but it worked for our toddler ages during Storytime. I like that the book covers the span of several fall activities -- apple picking, pumpkin gathering, and trick-or-treating on Halloween.
May 5, 2023
Genre: Fiction
Grades: PreK-K
I can't believe this book only has three stars! NO WAY! Nearly every child I've ever read this book to has always asked for second or third reading. It's a two-minute read, at most, but so full of colorful pictures and catchy phrases. I LOVE DAPPLED APPLES. It's one of my favorite AUTUMN read-alouds. Thank you Jan Carr for writing such a fun fall story!
Grades: PreK-K
I can't believe this book only has three stars! NO WAY! Nearly every child I've ever read this book to has always asked for second or third reading. It's a two-minute read, at most, but so full of colorful pictures and catchy phrases. I LOVE DAPPLED APPLES. It's one of my favorite AUTUMN read-alouds. Thank you Jan Carr for writing such a fun fall story!
September 11, 2017
This is one of those books with lots of adjectives and incomplete sentences. The art is cool- uses paper and some other media. The story is what happens a children enjoy fall activities like picking pumpkins and raking leaves.
October 14, 2025
We read this for our Pumpkin themed story time. This is a short rhyming story about going to the apple orchard and then picking pumpkins before dressing up for Halloween. The images are fun to look at and the story is a good length for younger kids.
June 28, 2018
Love the rhyming cadence, love the story. It's quick and the paper collage illustrations are bright and bold.
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September 29, 2022Too much pumpkin content.
November 26, 2022
Dappled Apples by Jan Carr – A sweet and simple fall story! Happy Reading!
October 15, 2024
The poetic style of the words was kinda a lot for me, but I absolutely loved the art.
October 12, 2016
4 stars.
What happens: Friends play outside and enjoy some of the most wonderful things about fall. They jump in leaf piles, go apple picking, go to a pumpkin patch, carve jack o'lanterns, and get dressed up for Halloween.
The good: The rhymes and the cut paper illustrations were both wonderful. The short text makes this an ideal shareable for toddlers through preschool. An additional positive is that a lot of the story focuses on sensory experiences. The kids see the changing colors, feel slimy pumpkin guts, and hear the crunch of the leaves. Sensory experiences are immediately relatable for many young children and I think they'd enjoy this familiar story. Additionally, a lot of the vocabulary used here focuses on simple action works like "run, tiptoe, tug, hug, and stack" which will be familiar to this age and lends itself to active storytelling. Another major positive is that one of the kids are people of color! Granted, 2/3 of the characters are white, but it's far too often that we don't see any POCs in picture books at all let alone an even 50/50 split.
The not so good: I wish there were more people of color (obv) and that the book focused more on a specific moment or experience rather than trying to pack in every single fall thing possible. While I love Halloween and I thought the cut paper illustrations for Halloween were particularly fun, I would have rather had a whole book featuring Halloween fun and another book featuring general fall stuff.
What happens: Friends play outside and enjoy some of the most wonderful things about fall. They jump in leaf piles, go apple picking, go to a pumpkin patch, carve jack o'lanterns, and get dressed up for Halloween.
The good: The rhymes and the cut paper illustrations were both wonderful. The short text makes this an ideal shareable for toddlers through preschool. An additional positive is that a lot of the story focuses on sensory experiences. The kids see the changing colors, feel slimy pumpkin guts, and hear the crunch of the leaves. Sensory experiences are immediately relatable for many young children and I think they'd enjoy this familiar story. Additionally, a lot of the vocabulary used here focuses on simple action works like "run, tiptoe, tug, hug, and stack" which will be familiar to this age and lends itself to active storytelling. Another major positive is that one of the kids are people of color! Granted, 2/3 of the characters are white, but it's far too often that we don't see any POCs in picture books at all let alone an even 50/50 split.
The not so good: I wish there were more people of color (obv) and that the book focused more on a specific moment or experience rather than trying to pack in every single fall thing possible. While I love Halloween and I thought the cut paper illustrations for Halloween were particularly fun, I would have rather had a whole book featuring Halloween fun and another book featuring general fall stuff.
September 24, 2013
I liked how there was some rhyming to the book. I really enjoyed how the book started out with the beginning of fall with the changing of the leaves, then transitioned into apple picking, followed by pumpkin picking then of course, Halloween. While the handmade cut paper illustrations were not my favorite at first it really did grow on my towards the end. I would recommend this for a young group maybe up to the age of 5 years old
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October 24, 2012Changing of seasons, mainly focusing on fall and Halloween holiday with rhyming format. Can be read to the class during units on studies of seasons and holiday. Can also teach students that apples are mainly grown and thrive in the autumn and fall times of the year.
October 13, 2009
The illustrations in this book are really cute - tissue paper perhaps? I wasn't a big fan of all the scary Halloween costumes.
October 6, 2011
Uniquely illustrated with handmade cutouts, the fall season leaps out of this book which will be fun for sharing in October. Ends with trick or treating.
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April 11, 2012describes the characteristics and plants found in fall - seasons - 2nd LifeScience
September 25, 2012
Amazing collages and simple rhyming text about harvest and Halloween.
October 27, 2013
Appealing collage artwork using cut paper accompany a cute rhyming story.
May 9, 2014
Sophia loves it when I just explain simple picture books and this was one of them.
September 18, 2016
A very simple picture book on fall for early childhood.
January 7, 2018
Kids enjoying fall activities.
The end references Halloween.
The end references Halloween.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews