Bunting, Eve. One Green Apple. Il. by Ted Lewin. Clarion, 2007.  Ages 6-8. Farrah is a bright, sensitive young Muslim girl trying to adjust to life in a new country, with children who dress, act and speak differently than those from her homeland.  On her second day at school, she bumps along on a hayride as part of the class field trip to an apple orchard. Lewin’s lively, realistic paintings trace the emotions of Farrah and the others as they pick apples, observe the process of making cider, and then get to taste the sweet product. Tellingly, Farrah alone selects a green apple. As Bunting points out, the mixture of different-colored apples makes for a tasty treat. One Green Apple, which won the inaugural Arab American Book Award for children’s literature, provides a wonderful opportunity for adults and children to discuss the value of diversity and the importance of welcoming newcomers.

Other autumnal read-alouds include …

Bosca, Francesca. The Apple King. North/South, 2001. Ages 7-9.  A selfish king hoards all the apples from his tree. It takes a worm to teach him the joys of sharing.

Diakite, Baba Wague. The Magic Gourd. Scholastic, 2003.  Ages 6-9. Ages 6-8. Friendship is worth more than gold, as Diakite reveals in his lively retelling of a West African folktale set in his native Mali. The rabbit Dogo Zan saves a chameleon and is rewarded with a magic gourd that fills with whatever its owner wishes. Eventually, the greedy king learns about the gourd’s magic powers and steals it. Using another gift from the chameleon, Dogo Zan recovers his treasure and teaches the king a lesson in generosity. The bold ceramic paintings provide humor, as well as lively images of traditional motifs of Mali.

Ehlert, Lois. Leaf Man. Houghton Mifflin, 2005. Ages 4-6. Follow this breezy tale of a man made of leaves, who goes wherever the wind takes him. Ehlert went about collecting leaves, seeds and nuts to make her gorgeous collages for this large, engaging picture book. Children will be amazed as they discern the images of many creatures Ehlert made with these natural objects. Endpapers provide a field guide to leaf varieties, which readers will be inspired to hunt on their own rambles. Librarians and teachers can get lesson ideas at Harcourt.

Florian, Douglas. Autumnblings: Poems and Paintings. Harper, 2003. All ages. Florian’s whimsical watercolors and playful puns toast the season. Experimenting with fonts and inventing words (“owlphabet”), Florian gives children and those who read to them something to hoot about.

Gourley, Robin.  Bring Me Some Apples, and I’ll Make You a Pie: A Story About Edna Lewis. Houghton, 2008. Ages 6-9. Gourley’s colloquial, Southern-flavored rhymes and text, complemented by her lush watercolors make this a unique and likable picture book. Readers follow the growing season, from early spring to the autumn frost, as Edna and her family plant and pick fruits, berries, nuts and vegetables for their meals, and preserve the surplus for winter.  Although

When you read C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series, you know you’re in the hands of a writer who comprehends the nature of good and evil. So when I read this weekend that Christine O’Donnell, the Republican running for the Senate in Delaware, had compared the Tea Party – and herself, by implication — to Aslan, Lewis’s beloved lion who sacrificed himself to save humanity, I found myself asking: What would Aslan do with this?

O’Donnell took one of literature’s most powerful symbols of Christ and tried to link it to what she calls a ”revolution of reason.” The Tea Party, she said, “isn’t tame, but boy, it sure is good.” As one of the millions of readers who love Lewis’s  wise and wonderful fantasies, I say, Take your hands off that lion. I knew that lion, and you, miss, are no lion.

The seemingly sweet association called forth by the woman from Delaware (well, for the last six years) echoes the scene in the The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, where the four Penvensie children meet the awe-inspiring Aslan. The beast is “not safe but good,” they concur. But as you venture into the ethical territory Lewis explored with his Christlike character,  O’Donnell’s allusion soon reveals its own twisted, arrogant nature.

Aslan, the king of Narnia, is the golden-maned beast that will restore spring to a world drained of warmth and color. Lewis uses two characters, Aslan and the White Witch, to reveal the contrast between good and evil. Goodness, as evoked by Aslan is warm, wise, mysterious, exciting. Evil, symbolized by the White Witch, is cold, cruel, destructive, colorless.

Most tellingly, the two characters use their immense powers differently.  Although Aslan has the ability to destroy, he unleashes his power only in the service of humanity. The Witch, on the other hand, is self-serving and deceitful. She tempts one of the children, Edmund, with enchanted Turkish Delight: “She knew, though Edmund did not, that … anyone who tasted it would want more and more of it.” This fiendish sweet does not satisfy hunger, it increases it. Under this influence, Edmund betrays Aslan and his siblings. Here’s how Aslan deals with the traitor: He forgives him. He talks to Edmund and then brings him back to his siblings, saying “… there is no need to talk to him about what is past.”  If words of kindness or respect have appeared anywhere in the Tea Party, I’ve somehow missed it.

C.S. Lewis created a character that resembled Christ in word and in deed. Aslan was not only merciful. He changed people for the better. He knew the other side was powerful, but he also knew that the Witch’s magic “goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back … she would have read there a different incantation.”  Wisdom, as Lewis so beautifully shows us, requires perspective and patience.

“Wrong will be right when Aslan comes in sight,” wrote Lewis.  Aslan will not be seen at this party. But watch for trays of Turkish Delight.

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