Magic in the Leaves: A Boy in Wisconsin

by J Lee Fleming, B J Gerdes (Illustrator)

Overview

Adrian is a six-year-old boy who has been in many places and has seen many things, but he makes an amazing discovery outdoors in his grandparents’ backyard with only a rake, a snow shovel, and his imagination.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781973650973
Publisher:	WestBow Press
Publication date:	02/04/2019
Pages:	38
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.10(d)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Jayne is a lifelong resident of Wisconsin with a love of the outdoors and children, particularly a charming grandson. Her friend Betsy is a talented artist who seemed the natural choice to illustrate this book. They are both retired nurses and proud grandmothers.
Their home, the Eau Claire area, is particularly beautiful and an inspiration for both the story and the art.
Both women particularly like the young audience, and hope this story will inspire children to go outside and explore, and maybe have their own story to tell one day.

Jayne is a lifelong resident of Wisconsin with a love of the outdoors and children, particularly a charming grandson. Her friend Betsy is a talented artist who seemed the natural choice to illustrate this book. They are both retired nurses and proud grandmothers.
Their home, the Eau Claire area, is particularly beautiful and an inspiration for both the story and the art.
Both women particularly like the young audience, and hope this story will inspire children to go outside and explore, and maybe have their own story to tell one day.

Editorial Reviews

2019-08-08
A boy's grandfather teaches him how to build a clubhouse out of leaves in this picture book from debut author Fleming and illustrator Gerdes.

Six-year-old Iranian American Adrian decides that, rather than vacation in Paris with his parents (where "he had been…a HUNDRED times"), he'd like to visit his grandparents in Wisconsin. Grammy and Grandpa live on farmland surrounded by woods, and at first, Adrian is enchanted by the animals he sees, and he and Grammy play outside together. When Adrian gets bored and homesick, Grandpa teaches him to make a house out of leaves. Adrian rakes, picturing the magical clubhouse that he's building, and he starts making big plans for it. Although a thick snow nearly ruins his dream, Adrian realizes that imagination is the key, and he builds a snow clubhouse that's even better than the leafy one. Beautifully shaded, highly realistic colored-pencil illustrations bring Adrian to life, though each clubhouse is marred by an unnecessary "No Girls!" sign. The prose is accessible, with simple sentences, but its placement feels uneven; for example, the first page is intimidatingly full of text while other spreads have only a single line. Still, Adrian's imaginative adventure will likely draw young readers in.

A celebration of imagination with vivid drawings and a creative protagonist.

Kirkus Reviews