Favorite Fall Picture Books
Fall is my absolute favorite season. Every year I wish I could hit a button and slow down the speed at which these days fly by, because before I know it, winter will be upon us. What better way to savor these precious days than by snuggling up on the couch and enjoying some books about the season together?
As a family, we try to limit our “holiday” celebrations to actual “holy days,” but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun enjoying pumpkins, scarecrows, harvest, and other fun aspects of fall. For years I’ve been collecting picture books to read with my preschool and elementary kids in the fall that don’t focus on Halloween, yet somehow I’ve never written a post to share about the ones we pull out year after year. So finally, here’s a list of our favorite fall books for preschool and elementary children.
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For Preschoolers
In It’s Pumpkin Day Mouse! (board book) Mouse paints fun faces on his pumpkins. This has been the #1 favorite for several of my kids.
Good Night, Little Pumpkin is about a little boy named Milo who has having so much fun at a fall festival, he just can’t bear to leave, until he’s experienced all the different things to do, insisting, “I’m not tired, Mama!”
P is for Pumpkin: God’s Harvest Alphabet is a beautifully illustrated celebration of autumn.
Pumpkin, Pumpkin is a super simple story of a boy who plants a pumpkin seed, watches it grow, and then saves some of its seeds to plant the following year.
Stories that share the Gospel
My Happy Pumpkin: God’s Love Shining Through Me (board book) is a simple way to share the gospel with children through the process of carving a pumpkin. I always love Crystal Bowman’s simple rhymes that use holiday traditions to point to Christ.
Along the same lines, but written for older children, The Pumpkin Patch Parable is an award-winning tale by Liz Curtis Higgs, who has written several parables around various holiday traditions.
The Little Pumpkins is another twist on this idea, with Bible verses on each page.
Fun Stories
The Very Best Pumpkin tells the story of a boy who carefully tends a pumpkin on his grandparents’ farm, and helps grow a friendship as well.
Mousekin’s Golden House is a hard-to-find classic that we love about a little mouse who takes shelter in a discarded jack-o-lantern and turns it into a snug home. (This book does have one reference to “Hallowe’en.”)
In Pumpkin Jack, the reader follows the story of a pumpkin “long after the best trick-or-treat candy was eaten,” all the way through the following year, when its seeds have new pumpkin for the boy who carved it.
Too Many Pumpkins is my personal favorite, about a lady who manages to take an unpleasant situation and uses it as a way to joyfully bless others.
Speaking of favorites, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything is the book several of my children read or ask for over and over, though to be honest, I don’t understand the appeal. It tells the story of a lady confronted by various items of clothing that attempt to scare her as she walks through the woods.
The Little Scarecrow Boy is a story we’ve enjoyed for years, about a young scarecrow determined to prove that he’s ready to follow in his father’s footsteps.
The Scarecrow’s Hat follows the dealings of a resourceful chicken who makes a series of transactions to acquire just what she wants for her nest.
Fun Books for Learning
We have all enjoyed How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?, which can be used as a fun way of teaching estimation and skip-counting.
Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin Pie is full of vivid photographs showing the life of a pumpkin from seed to pie and beyond.
So there you go! I hope you can find some new favorites to enjoy with your family as you relish these fleeting autumn days.
I have dreams of being a “roadschooling” family, hopping in an RV and flitting around the country educating our children as we visit amazing places. Alas, my husband’s job (which, thankfully, he loves) isn’t the kind that can be done remotely, so the chances of us becoming full-time roadschoolers are pretty slim.
