Seasons Picture Books

The illustrations are perfection. This is a story told in pictures only that takes you through all 4 seasons. It has the appearance of a handcrafted book (complete with die-cuts!). We have had this book for years and never get tired of it. Lizi Boyd is my hero.

I’ve recently become OBSESSED with all things Alain Grée! Bold & engaging illustrations and LOTS to explore as the book takes you from Spring to Winter.

This book is out of print, but I found it thrifted on eBay. There ARE 4 separate board book versions of this for Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter … BUT, I really love having the one-volume book to read through in one sitting.

ALSO NOTE: the board books do NOT have words but the Circle of Seasons one-volume version does!

What’s not to love? Bold illustrations with several fun die-cuts on each page. You view one single tree as it changes through the seasons. I LOVE how this starts with winter, takes you through spring, summer, fall, then winter again, and then spring again — it’s easy to see & feel the full cycle.

Lots of fun little things to hunt for on each page: the spider is our current favorite. And the words are lyrical and rhyming — something young ones can memorize before they can read.

Recently, some Instagram friends put together these absurdly wonderful picture book retell activities for this book. Go check them out.

This little gem has one poem for each month, plus others for days of the week, months of the year, etc. Short but sweet. My absolute favorite to read with the kids as soon as we turn the calendar to a new month!

THIS BOOK. I love it! The book is divided in to the four seasons with 12-15 poems for each season. Each individual poem is titled by date and perfectly conveys the wonder & beauty of each season.

AND the illustrations are by the always-stellar Julie Morstad! We use this every week for our poetry tea time.

A lot of text to these pages but who doesn’t totally love farm animals?? This shows seasonal changes by dividing up farm animal life month by month. Fun to read just a single month at a time or read it through and track various animals.

Toot’s adventures at home track through all of the seasons while Puddle is off adventuring on his own. My personal favorite is “March meant maple syrup” because we tap trees for syrup every winter too! There’s joy to be had in winter!

“Charlotte Zolotow is a legend in children’s books” (Gladys Hunt, Honey for a Child’s Heart)

Another out of print book! There is a newer anniversary version of this called Changes: A Child’s First Poetry Collection (see below) but note that these do not have the same poems as this older copy. I prefer the illustrations in this one as opposed to “Changes” but that one is still lovely!

The poetry in this collection is all by Charlotte Zolotow and perfectly evokes how a child views each season. My kids can feel themselves in these poems rather than feel that an adult is telling them about the seasons.

Originally I thought this book was just a reprint of the above Charlotte Zolotow collection, but the poems are actually not all the same (there’s only a couple crossovers)! I will say I like how the poems & corresponding illustrations span the entire page so my kids can track one single poem and view the corresponding picture while we read (rather than get distracted by lots of other illustrations across the page).

Jane Yolen … of the Owl Moon variety!!

The illustrations and the poetic rhyming verse take us on a journey through each of the four seasons while celebrating the natural world. Seriously: the illustrations of woodland animals in this book are stunning and engaging. Not too much text per page so this works well for my toddler!

This book was recently published and has such gorgeous minimalistic illustrations. I basically want to frame each page. This tracks one family through the seasons engaging in their favorite activities. I love that this book has a balance of city living + engagement with nature.

And absolute all-time favorite. There was a period of time when ALL we read was Frog and Toad and ALL we listened to in the car was Frog and Toad! This one in particular has 5 stories that track through the four seasons. LOVE this, forever. Seriously get the audio versions of Frog and Toad if you are a fan. It’s Arnold Lobel himself reading and they are wonderful!! I sell Frog & Toad peg dolls because we love these characters so much.

This book tracks the care of a garden through all for seasons!! It’s filled with a sense of simplicity and peace, which I totally adore. It pairs the work of the gardener to the work of the earth quite beautifully.