Fall Mixed Up

by Bob Raczka

"Every Septober, Every Octember, Fall fills my senses with scenes to remember." "Bears gather nuts. Geese hibernate. Squirrels fly south in big figure eights." Fall is all mixed up in this silly book from Bob Raczka! Can you find his mistakes in the words and pictures?

Fall Mixed Up is a collection of mixed-up fall images from the imagination of Bob Raczka taken to their visual extremes in the intricate mixed-media illustrations of Chad Cameron.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Storytime, Humor, Fiction, Halloween, Holiday

32 pages, Unknown Binding

First published August 1, 2011

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

With a rhyming text from author Bob Raczka and bright, colorful artwork from illustrator Chad Cameron, this fun seasonal picture-book presents a rather mixed-up vision of fall. From orange apples and red pumpkins to hibernating geese and nut-gathering bears, there are plenty of mistakes here, both in text and illustrations, giving the young reader/listener plenty of opportunities to spot what's wrong...

An entertainingly interactive title, Fall Mixed Up would make a wonderful book to read with a young child who enjoys 'search and find' stories, or any other kind of book where the reader and listener get involved more directly in figuring out what is going on. The rhyming text itself reads well, and the artwork is full of the wonderful colors of fall, even when some objects are not the shade one might expect. Recommended to picture-book readers looking for more interactive autumn stories.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was right up my alley. Sometimes when I read a book I'll intentionally say something wrong to see if my kids can catch the mistake. I do this often especially when it is a book we've read multiple times. My kids love it and sometime ask me to read the book the wrong way.

In this book the pictures & words are full of mistakes. My daughter had a great time finding things that were wrong in the book.

I loved the illustrations and had fun reading it to my daughter. A great addition to a home or school library to celebrate the arrival of fall.

4.5 Stars

Source: Netgalley

[Donalyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

From hibernating geese to a Thanksgiving table laden with sweets, fall doesn't look like it's supposed to in this silly book about fall. Kids will love finding all of the errors in this book and discussing their favorite parts of the fall season. My favorite illustrations shows squirrels, each one tied to a red balloon, flying south for the winter. This would make a great read aloud to share alongside the scarecrow, pumpkin, and leaf books we commonly read with kids.

[donna backshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun book! Just imagine sitting with your child, both of you giggling uncontrollably, while you go page by page, hearing squeals of "No, Mommy, that's not right!"

It's similar to the silliness of Sandra Boynton's Blue Hat, Green Hat with a fun fall twist.

[Sharon Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fall Mixed Up written by Bob Raczka and illustrated by Chad Cameron is a picture book due to be released on September 1 2011. The fun illustrations and rhymes within this picture book take readers through the wonders of fall, with errors that entertain and challenge readers to find them all. There are mistakes to find from the very first page when the names of the months are jumbled together, right through the last page when we can still see squirrels flying south as the author challenges us to find all the things the book has mixed up about fall. My son is only four, and a huge fan of puzzles and I Spy games, so he found this book to be fun and entertaining on several levels. He loved the silly mistakes, and finding the different things that were wrong in each illustration. My three year old loves to laugh and point to the animals and people doing silly things. I found the illustrations to be both soft enough to draw you into the pictures and vibrant enough to catch the attention and keep it. The illustrations truly captured the whimsy of the book perfectly.

I think Fall Mixed Up will make the most sense to those of us in the United States, since Halloween and Thanksgiving are included in the story, though boys and girls everywhere will enjoy the mistakes of mittens on ears and candy corn sprouts. The giggles and slimes that I get while reading this book with my kids, and my own personal enjoyment of this book, make me recommend this book to families with children between three and eight. I think that teachers in preschool, kindergarten and first grade might also make good use of this book while discussing the season of fall and the way we celebrate the holidays within the season.

[KP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fall Mixed Up by Bob Raczka is a delightfully funny children’s picture book. The cover is bright and fun and proves that, in this case, you CAN judge a book by it’s cover. While the text is simplistic enough to hold the youngest of readers’ attentions, it is also vibrant and descriptive enough to please older children. Boys and girls alike will love reading this book repeatedly while trying to find all of the “mistakes” presented throughout the book.

Chad Cameron illustrated this beautiful story, and the illustrations have a softness to them that seems to pull you in and transport you to the wonderful world Raczka has weaved together with his words. One fun feature in the illustrations is to notice how certain parts of pictures find their way back into future illustrations throughout the book.

Fall Mixed Up would be a great book to use in classrooms when teaching about the seasons or different fall holidays. It is a book that celebrates fall and the typical things we do during the season but with a twist. Written for 4-8 year olds, Fall Mixed Up is published by Carolrhoda Books, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group. This cute and creative book is scheduled to be released in September 2011. I give Fall Mixed Up by Bob Raczka 4 out of 5 books.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are errors galore in the rhyming text and illustrations of this book. Just about everything is mixed up with geese hibernating and bears climbing trees to gather nuts. Young readers will have fun finding everything that's wrong on the mixed up pages; one two-page spread even shows Thanksgiving being celebrated with a table laden with sweets and more sweets and no food to be found. The illustrations are cleverly rendered to support the text. My favorite one shows three children trying to sink their teeth into caramel-covered pumpkins rather than apples. Ouch! Kids will wince at the illustration of children leaping into piles of sticks instead of leaves too. Great, silly fun, but oh, what an imagination this author has.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful book for fall storytime! This book includes fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving making it perfect for several times during the fall season. The rhyming is wonderful and the silly mix ups will be great for having young children talk about what the correction should be. Since many of them are easy, standard fall things (apples, bears, leaves, etc) even the youngest toddlers will be able to participate in guessing what should be happening. The illustrations are excellent, ranging from sunny, warm fall days to darker themes on the Halloween pages, encompassing everything storytime folks look for in a solid, read aloud book.

[Amanda Hoffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

My daughter loves this book. She loves going through and finding the mistakes. I think it would be a great book to read for the traditions of fall. You could read it before the season starts and then discover which things your kiddos were interested in the most and form some activities around them.

[Scottsdale Public Library]

When just the right words for the season fall into the wrong places, you’ll see how autumn leaves lots of fun in the fixings. - Monty

[Mackenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love this book. it is funny

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is mixed up

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for one audience or many. Kids love to point out the things that are wrong in the book.

[Hannah Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was great! The story is perfect for this season. The author put together a story that consisted of mixing up the last few months of the year as well as the holidays. This book could be a good books to use in the classroom because as you read you can interact with the students and ask them questions. For instance, in the story there is a scarecrow that watches over a field of candy corn. The teacher can ask the students what a scarecrow actually watches over because the scarecrow obviously doesn't look over candy corn, but real corn!

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read aloud for fall or Halloween! This book could also be a great early reader for first graders as well. The author mixes up spellings, scary characters, animals, foods, holidays, the seasons, and then asks children at the end to go back and identify all the mistakes. The hyperbolic cartoonish illustrations such as the mummy with bat wings and the Owl howling at the moon are especially funny.

[Shawna Ridgley · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, so cute! Silly story about all things fall--but not quite! A great little book for interaction. Beautiful illustrations!

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

8/28/2024 - I enjoyed the illustrations. With my daughter being 2, almost 3, I felt like the mix-ups could be confusing. I might try re-reading it in a year or two when she can point them out.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fall Mixed Up by Rob Raczka is a short picture book all about things that take place in the fall. It has humor and is a delightful book to read, the text is not to hard and could be read to many ages even the younger ages. The story though is also very descriptive which I think could appeal to some older children as well. The things are all mixed up which makes the story more fun to read, and makes you laugh. The illustrations are also really cute and humorous because you are able to see the silly mixed up things they talk about. For example they say that the gloves cover ears and they show the gloves on the characters ears. this is just fun for kids to see and they can point out the silly things that are mixed up throughout the book. I think this book was very cute and talks about a bunch of things that we do throughout the fall time. I would recommend this book for elementary Age probably 1st through around 4th grade just because they should still find this book humorous and interesting.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book with many items twisted around to make funny images. The challenge is to try to straighten them out and to laugh out loud over how the mistakes makes fall very, very funny.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kids loved the wackyness of this book. They said it reminded them of wacky Wednesday

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this a lot but it would be hard to do for story time. This is more of a one-on-one conversation with what's wrong in this book and why it's silly.

[Dodie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It’s great for kids. Beautiful illustrations and even though the text is simple, it’s also funny. As you read this book with your kids you can have conversation about what got “mixed up” and have a good laugh.

[Morgan Wylie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: Apples turning orange, pumpkins turning red, hats woren on hands?? This is not what we know about fall, this is all mixed up! A silly and playful story about fall being not so fall like.
Evaluation: I gave this book 5 stars. The illustrations in this book were very pretty and interesting. It was a fun read, and students would enjoy this book.
Teaching point: This book could be used for teaching visualizing. Since the book is not describing fall how it really is, it allows students to use their imaginations and visualizing skills to see what is being read to them. Students could practice these skills with this book.

[Cynthia Gutzwiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a funny book, but absolutely beautiful. Made for kids 4-9 years. This is a great read anytime book. Night time reading for the rhyming and beautiful fall pictures. Day time for the checking to see what is mixed up and what it should be. It will be a read often book because the pages are full of things to see.
Here are a few of the craziness. The apples are orange and the pumpkins are red. The bears hunt nuts and the geese hibernate. Hats cover hands and gloves cover ears. Crazy Fall Mix-Ups.
I borrowed this book on a website for Kindle Unlimited Books and so can you.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun idea for a picture book! I could see this as a big hit with preschoolers, who will enjoy pointing out all the things that are wrong on every page. Some of the autumn imagery may require more explanations than others - most young children probably won't know what milkweed pods are, for example. But beyond that, the catchy rhyme and vivid illustrations immediately pulled me in. I can't wait to try this at storytime next week!

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book that mixes up events or facts about the fall. Squirrels don't fly south for the winter, and scarecrows don't guard candy corn plants. The book is offered in a spirit of enjoyment of all things Fall, and a subtle author's dedication in the beginning of the book in a photo frame on an illustrated page: "Dedicated to every boy and girl whose favorite season is fall." At the end, the book challenges the reader to go back and find the errors in the story.

[Jeanie Cullip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fall Mixed Up would be a great read aloud on the first day of fall. I absolutely loved all of the holiday mishaps and the disordered familiarities from this time of year. My daughter and I giggled through the entire reading as we saw flying squirrels, bears gathering nuts, and geese hibernating for the winter.

After reading, I would have my students go back to each page and sort out the various discrepancies they found and then start a discussion about what really happens when Fall begins.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raczka writes and draws fall that is filled with boo-boos. This book has an I Spy kind of fun, looking on every page for the mistakes.

“Apples turn orange.
Pumpkins turn red.
Leaves float up into
blue skies overhead.”

This might be a fun book for teachers to use with their classes. What’s wrong here?

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such an entertaining and silly fall themed book! Not only does it rhyme, but it also mixes up different things about fall which would be a great way for students to use critical thinking as they try to sort it out. I think it will make the children giggle a lot, and could make for a very fun read aloud book during the fall season.

[Emily Northcutt · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 2nd grade class thought this was hilarious! Their teacher told me that they had been talking about Fall and I thought that this was a great transitional book for the time between Halloween and Thanksgiving. The students really enjoyed figuring out what was wrong with the pictures in the book and they rhyming text was also a hit. I will definitely keep this in my Autumn read-aloud repertoire.