APPLES HERE!

Hubbell (Pumpkin Jack, 2000) poses children and apple trees together in every season, and writes evocatively of the apple’s annual cycle, from dormant winter bud to farmers’ market and applesauce for latkes. “There are apples here, / hidden in buds and waiting for spring. / There are apples here / scenting the air and waiting for bees.” Not much, but pleasant. The art doesn’t measure up to the writing, however; facial features on his multicultural cast are often oddly placed, and the colors, especially reds and greens, have a harsh, unnatural cast. The extensive afterword is actually more valuable than the rest of the offering. Considering the plethora of same-topic titles available—Ken Robbins’s Apples, for instance (p. 962)—this, though not really a bad apple, isn’t likely to be a first pick. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-7)