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How about these apples on the eve of fall?

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Eve offered a certain piece of fruit to her mate, and we have been tempted by apples ever since. Babies start out with applesauce as one of their first foods. Apples are even used as the traditional gift for the teacher to ensure good favor, good grades and fewer calls home. Apples accompany children in backpacks and lunchboxes and diaper bags. Since we all agree that apples are so good for children, why don't we add some apple books to their library?

“How Do Apples Grow?” written by Betsy Maestro and illustrated by Giulio Maestro, is a great first book to teach some new facts about apples and apple trees. You can make a time-lapse picture about how apples grow. Take an apple seed and glue it on a piece of brown paper. Every day add something to the picture. A few root stems below the seed, then a seedling growing up, then a trunk, then branches, blossoms, and finally apples.

“Ten Apples up on Top!” a favorite by Dr. Seuss, is a fun book about balancing apples on your head. The pictures by Roy McKie show animals trying to outdo one another with more and more apples. Counting is an additional feature of this early reader. You can try to balance apples the way they do in the story. Remember your fruit may be quite bruised at the end of this game!

“Life on an Apple Orchard” is a real-life story about a girl who lives with her family on an apple farm. It is written by Judy Wolfman with photography by David Lorenz Winston. The book is full of pictures of different seasons on a working farm where 27 different kinds of apples are grown. Adults and children alike will learn something about farming apples.

At the grocery store, you can buy one apple of each kind they have. Conduct a tasting time at home, comparing the different varieties and deciding on everyone's favorites.

You might want to visit an orchard in our area and see what the trees look like at this time of year. We don't grow apples here, but peach trees are abundant in the Hill Country.

An award-winning picture book about the life of John Chapman, “Johnny Appleseed” is about the legend and the real history of this man's life. The poem was written by Reeve Lindbergh and the paintings, in a folk art style similar to Thomas Kinkade, are by Kathy Jakobsen. The text and pictures work together to create a folk history of the man who traveled around the country planting apple trees.

You can have an apple dinner this fall. Make an apple pie following your favorite recipe. Let your child decorate the top crust with pieces of leftover crust. Make apple placecards for the table with red construction paper. Use an apple as a candle stick holder for your centerpiece. Try adding apples to other dishes, too. You can add apple slices to teriyaki chicken, for instance. After supper, read a good apple book before your all American dessert.

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