Applesauce Season

by Eden Ross Lipson, Mordicai Gerstein (Illustrator)

Overview

A taste of fall: Celebrated editor Eden Lipson and Caldecott Medal winner Mordicai Gerstein celebrate a fall family ritual in Applesauce Season, a picture book rich with the colors and flavors of the season.

When the first apples of the season--Ida Red and Paula Red, Twenty Ounce, McIntosh, and Ginger Gold--show up in the city markets, it's time to take out the big pot and make applesauce. A lovingly recounted description of a family's applesauce-making ritual describes the buying, peeling, cooking and stirring; the wait for the sauce to cool and the first taste.

Mordicai Gerstein's paintings are full of the colors and flavors of the season: red apples, orange leaves, blue skies. Here's a lovely picture book celebrating an American family tradition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466808225
Publisher:	Roaring Brook Press
Publication date:	08/04/2009
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	47 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Eden Ross Lipson was children's book editor of The New York Times Book Review until 2005, and is the author of the authoritative New York Times Parent's Guide to the Best Books for Children.

Mordicai Gerstein is the author and illustrator of The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, winner of the Caldecott Medal, and has had four books named New York Times Best Illustrated Books of the Year. Gerstein was born in Los Angeles in 1935. He remembers being inspired as a child by images of fine art, which his mother cut out of Life magazine, and by children's books from the library: "I looked at Rembrandt and Superman, Matisse and Bugs Bunny, and began to make my own pictures."

He attended Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, and then got a job in an animated cartoon studio that sent him to New York, where he designed characters and thought up ideas for TV commercials. When a writer named Elizabeth Levy asked him to illustrate a humorous mystery story about two girls and a dog, his book career began, and soon he moved on to writing as well as illustrating. The author of more than forty books, Gerstein lived in Westhampton, Massachusetts.

Mordicai Gerstein (1935-2019) is the author and illustrator of The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, winner of the Caldecott Medal, and has had many books named New York Times Best Illustrated Books of the Year.

Gerstein was born in Los Angeles in 1935. He remembers being inspired as a child by images of fine art, which his mother cut out of Life magazine, and by children’s books from the library: “I looked at Rembrandt and Superman, Matisse and Bugs Bunny, and began to make my own pictures.” He attended Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, and then got a job in an animated cartoon studio that sent him to New York, where he designed characters and thought up ideas for TV commercials. When a writer named Elizabeth Levy asked him to illustrate a humorous mystery story about two girls and a dog, his book career began, and soon he moved on to writing as well as illustrating.

The author of more than forty books, Gerstein lived in Westhampton, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

Young readers will savor the process from beginning to end: choosing…washing, chopping, cooking, grinding, seasoning…and, of course, tasting…Lipson blends a lyrical text with a practical approach (adults do the chopping and handle the hot stuff), and Gerstein's exuberant illustrations washed in yellows and reds evoke the smell of sweet steam in a sunny kitchen.
—The Washington Post

Kristi Jemtegaard

Tolstoy was wrong: happy families are not all alike. Some make applesauce, and those who do, the author of this smartly observed, warm-hearted tale implies, are almost surely the better for it…Gerstein, who won the 2004 Caldecott Medal for The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, draws in a wiry, kinetic line that touches down lightly on the page…these gravity-defying, dreamlike images seem to nod approvingly at the untamed spirit that drives the pursuit of any glorious obsession.
—The New York Times

Leonard S. Marcus

Flavored with family tradition and spiced with Gerstein's cheerful illustrations, this account of one family's love of applesauce hits the spot. One day "when it is still hot and summery, but vacation is over," Grandma says, "It's time for applesauce." The city-dwelling family buys apples ("at least three different kinds") at an outdoor market. The names and varieties of apples and the details of cooking change as the season progresses, with the subtle variations in the process lovingly detailed in both text and image. The "first sauce of the season" is celebrated and toasted at a special gathering of family and friends, while later Grandpa is remembered on his birthday with a candle-bedecked pie. The child narrator (who sports round, red glasses just like Grandma's) wonders whether he'll prefer pie to sauce when he grows up, while the illustrations project a future generation of apple lovers, a poignant touch for this last book by the late Lipson. In a crowded orchard of apple books, this one stands out for home or school apple- and/or family-tradition projects. Applesauce recipe appended. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews

[A] smartly observed, warm-hearted tale . . . . Happily there is more than enough for seconds.” —The New York Times Book Review

“The angle of Dad's shoulders as he squeezes between everyone to reach in with his spoon is one of those brilliant details in a children's book that conveys the warmth of family.” —Newsday

“Exuberant watercolors follow along as a happy urban family buys, quarters, cooks, seasons, purees and savors the thick gooey stuff. Get out the food mill. ” —The San Francisco Chronicle

“His [Gerstein's] sly humor is a perfect match for the straightforward narrative, which ends with a recipe and a glimpse into the boy's sunny future–full of apples, of course.” —School Library Journal

“The final page includes a detailed recipe and an illustration of the boy, now a dad, in the kitchen cutting apples with his daughter, sharing a smile.” —Horn Book

“In a crowded orchard of apple books, this one stands out.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A wonderful tribute to her [Eden Ross Lipson] considerable contributions and talents.” —Starred, Publishers Weekly

“A wonderful story of apples, applesauce and family traditions.” —Infodad.com

From the Publisher