And Then It's Spring

by Julie Fogliano, Erin E. Stead (Illustrator)

Overview

Following a snow-filled winter, a young boy and his dog decide that they've had enough of all that brown and resolve to plant a garden. They dig, they plant, they play, they wait . . . and wait . . . until at last, the brown becomes a more hopeful shade of brown, a sign that spring may finally be on its way.

Julie Fogliano's tender story of anticipation is brought to life by the distinctive illustrations Erin E. Stead, recipient of the 2011 Caldecott Medal.

This title has Common Core connections.

And Then It's Spring is one of The Washington Post's Best Kids Books of 2012.

One of Kirkus Reviews' Best Children's Books of 2012

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596436244
Publisher:	Roaring Brook Press
Publication date:	02/14/2012
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	141,461
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 10.60(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	AD600L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Julie Fogliano is the New York Times bestselling author of And Then It’s Spring and If You Want to See a Whale as well as the poetry collection, When Green Becomes Tomatoes. Recipient of the 2013 the Ezra Jack Keats award, her books have been translated into more than ten languages. Julie lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband and three children. When she is not folding laundry or wondering what to make for dinner, she is staring out the window waiting for a book idea to fly by.

Erin E. Stead has illustrated several children's books with her husband, Philip C. Stead. Their first picture book, A Sick Day for Amos McGee, won the Caldecott Medal. She has also illustrated And Then It's Spring (written by Julie Fogliano) and contributed to Eric Carle's What's Your Favorite Animal? The Steads divide their time between Ann Arbor, Michigan, and New York City.

Reading Group Guide

Signs of Spring
Take a walk outside and talk about the changes that take place from winter to spring. What do you hear, feel, see, and smell in the different seasons?

Poetry
Every April, at the beginning of springtime, we celebrate National Poetry Month. There are lots of different styles of poems. One style is an acrostic poem. Let's write an acrostic poem about spring. To start your poem, put the letters that spell out SPRING down the side of your paper. Then go back to each letter and think of a word, phrase, or sentence that starts with that letter and describes the season of spring. We gave an example using the letter G below. You get to fill in the other letters! Remember that this style of poetry doesn't need to rhyme. Be creative and share your poem!

S ..............................................................................
P ..............................................................................
R ..............................................................................
I...............................................................................
N ..............................................................................
G reen, all around you have green...............................

Gardening
We also celebrate Earth Day every April. You may already have a garden at your school or in your community. If not...

Grow a Garden!

Materials needed: Styrofoam cups, soil, water, sunlight, seeds (your choice), Popsicle sticks, and plant markers.

Follow these steps:
Step 1: Pick a seed to plant.
Step 2: Fill Styrofoam cup half way with soil.
Step 3: Use the Popsicle stick to dig a hole in the soil.
Step 4: Write the name of the plant on the plant marker.
Step 5: Color the plant marker, cut it out, and glue to the Popsicle stick.
Step 6: Plant the seed and cover it with soil, following the directions on the seed packet.
Step 7: Water the seed, following the directions on the seed packet.
Step 8: Place the plant marker in the soil, standing straight up.
Step 9: Expose the cup to sunlight, and continue to water.
Step 10: Wait patiently for the plant to grow and blossom.
Step 11: Take the fully grown plant home to share!

Editorial Reviews

Readers of Shaun Tan’s The Red Tree will recognize the glum-to-radiant trajectory of Fogliano’s soft-spoken debut, subtly illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Stead (A Sick Day for Amos McGee). Unfolding as a single sentence that carries readers from late winter to spring (almost every page opens with an “and,” pushing things along), the story focuses on a boy in blank-eyed glasses, who slouches in barren farmland with a dog, a turtle, and other assorted animals and birds. “First you have brown,/ all around you have brown.” The boy plants seeds in the packed earth and waits for the plants to grow. Worry and waiting are recurring themes: did birds eat the seeds? what about that trio of bears, seen happily ignoring the boy’s “please do not stomp here” sign? Pale blue sky and tawny drabs flood Stead’s block-print-and-pencil images, which yield not a sprout until the closing spread, “and now you have green,/ all around you have green.” In an understated and intimate partnership, Fogliano and Stead conjure late winter doldrums and the relief of spring’s arrival, well worth the wait. Ages 4–7. Illustrator’s agent: Emily Van Beek, Folio Literary Management. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Green is what the bespectacled boy in Julie Fogliano's 'And Then It's Spring' eagerly hopes to see as he waits for seeds he has planted to sprout from the brown earth. Did birds eat the seeds? Did bears trample them? In Erin E. Stead's finely drawn illustrations, we see the imagined bears lounging in the seedbeds with a sign that reads: 'Please do not stomp here—there are seeds and they are trying.'” —The Wall Street Journal

“This seemingly real-time experience of getting to green is a droll, wistful ode to the stamina behind wanting, will, and perseverance.” —School Library Journal, Starred

“In an understated and intimate partnership, Fogliano and Stead conjure late winter doldrums and the relief of spring's arrival, well worth the wait.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred

“This sweet seedling will undoubtedly take root and thrive. ” —Kirkus, Starred

“Fogliano's poetic yet grounded narrative is reminiscent of Charlotte Zolotow's picture-book texts in its understatement and straightforward, childlike observations…As for the illustrations, there's no sophomore slump for Stead: her second book is even better than her 2011 Caldecott winner, A Sick Day for Amos McGee (rev. 5/10).” —Horn Book Magazine, Starred

“A first-time author and the Caldecott Award-winning illustrator of A Sick Day for Amos McGee (2011) team up in this beautiful ode to a patient gardener.” —Booklist, Starred

“…a humble yet miraculous world…” —BCCB

From the Publisher

PreS-Gr 2—The lowercase letters in the title and the theme immediately bring to mind "in just spring" by e. e. cummings. That association continues while experiencing the book's economy of words and construction as a single, lyrical rumination (one initial capital letter; one concluding period). If that earlier poem celebrates the fullness of the season, this one re-creates the moment before—the faith-hope-doubt-worry stage that a gardener experiences after planting: "First you have brown,/all around you have brown…." A bundled and bespectacled boy, his dog, a rabbit, and a turtle, all sporting red knit hats, survey the barren soil, bare trees, and dried stalks. Stead's warm, finely textured scenes, printed from wood blocks and enhanced with pencil, are imbued with realism and quiet humor. The second-person narrative and immediately recognizable emotions pull readers close, as do the delicate details and nuanced expressions that grace the interplay between the characters and their subtly changing surroundings. Fogliano takes seriously the concerned flights of fancy a child conjures while enduring the interminable progress of a seed: "…maybe it was the bears…/because bears can't read signs/that say things like/ 'please do not stomp here—/there are seeds/and they are trying….'" Children will intuitively relate to both the agony of anticipation and the effort of growing. This seemingly real-time experience of getting to green is a droll, wistful ode to the stamina behind wanting, will, and perseverance.—Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library

School Library Journal

A boy plants seeds in late winter's brown, barren earth and vigilantly watches for green sprouts alongside his companions (a dog, turtle, rabbit and bird). Rambling narration, elasticized with many ands, thats, commas and a boy's earnest concerns for his seeds, runs on, leaving readers waiting and waiting and waiting--just like the child gardener. The boy's oversized glasses, his tilted, blank face (we never see his eyes) and tiny chin melt hearts instantly. Stead wisely withholds his features, letting Fogliano's babbling stream of small worries and staggeringly sharp imaginings flesh him out. Silly bears might tread on the plantings, unaware of signs that read "please do not stomp here-- / there are seeds / and they are trying." Germinating seeds issue "a greenish hum / that you can only hear / if you put your ear to the ground / and close your eyes." This elaborate inner world and darling voice reverberate in muted wood-block prints and empathetic pencil illustrations as well, its timbre and tone unchanged. Delicate lines run like fine veins, describing animals, trees, plants and fences with intricate and intentional specificity. Sizable, scalloped cloud formations, whose flat panes of white widen double-page horizons, offset both the scrupulous line-work and abundant regions of brown and blue. Their simplicity ventilates these pictures, allowing readers to note amusing secondary animal activities in the dirt. Many treasures lie buried within this endearing story, in which humor and anxious anticipation sprout alongside one another. This sweet seedling will undoubtedly take root and thrive. (Picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews

Erin Stead understands the power of judiciously applied color and uses repeated dollops…to draw the reader's eye across each double-page panorama…As seeds sprout into plants, so these simple words grow through each carefully detailed scene into a tale filled with the joy of being alive.
—The Washington Post

Kristi Jemtegaard