Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Books We Love: Leaf Jumpers


Phew! The Wanna-Greenies are back from a whirlwind tour of Massachusetts, visiting Green Nana and Green Gramps, and I've got a lot of catching up to do. I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs and to posting about the latest and greatest in greenery.

We did a lot of fun stuff while in the Bay State: The New England Aquarium, Lookout Farm, and lots and lots of walks and hikes. I also have two observations to make about the inhabitants of my former place of residence: 1) I don't care what the actual statistics are, and Starbucks can disagree with me all they want, but these people love their Dunkin' Donuts. That's all I'm sayin'. 2) These people (again with the "these people") are...um...shall we say, kind of into the team logo apparel. We are talking there must be a Red Sox hat, t-shirt, or sweatshirt for every man, woman, and child in the Bay State and they are all wearing them at once. Love that team pride!

While we were in Boston, we also had the opportunity to visit with artist and illustrator, Leslie Evans at Sea Dog Press. She is busily working on a new book called Winter Trees, published once again by Charlesbridge Press. It is a companion book to her previous award-winning tree-tise (hahaha, oh gosh, I slay myself) Leaf Jumpers. If you have not seen this book yet it, you should really make an effort to find it in your local library or bookstore as it is the perfect time of year for this perennial favorite.

Using the same hand-cut linoleum block print and watercolor technique that she used for her Acrostic series, she illustrates in autumnal colors the different leaves from our favorite trees. Along with author Carole Gerber's rhyming narration, you cannot help but want to gather up your own pile of leaves to crunch through. In the interest of full disclosure, this book happens to feature my two cousins, but hey...I'd love Leslie's work anyway!

I hope you enjoy Leaf Jumpers, no matter if autumn leaves fall in your neck of the woods or not! And who knows...Leslie, if you're reading this...maybe you'd agree to be interviewed for a future Gift of Green post!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you. I love new books -- and nothing like a librarian to keep me informed.

Mary Beth said...

Sounds like a fabulous trip.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a nice trip back to New England. I did notice that one thing you DID NOT do while here was visit "Mr. Ocean City, New Jersey!!!" and his family but all is forgiven....this time.
RD

Mimi said...

Hi Amy,

I enjoyed reading your review of LEAF JUMPERS and hope you will also want to write about WINTER TREES, out soon from Charlesbridge. Leslie is an incredible artist and I am honored to have had her illustrate my new "trees" book. I am hoping we will do four together - one for each season.
Best regards,
Carole Gerber