Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf

By: Lois Ehlert

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers

Copyright © 1991 by Lois Ehlert

Genre: General fiction

Readability Lexile: 680L

Interest level: pre- k-3

Reading level: 3.3

Summary:

It starts out with a little girl showing off her maple leaf from her tree. The tree was there even before she was born. It goes through the seasons with her tree. Once spring comes nursery workers come and take roots from the tree. They transplanted the roots and took care of them year after year until they uprooted again. It was delivered to a garden center where the little girl picked out a new maple tree to plant at home. She took care of it through all the seasons. Her favorite season for the tree was in fall.

An evaluation of the text based on Donna Norton’s characteristics of high quality literature:

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf is a great story about how a girl loves and takes care of a maple tree. The plot is believable. When kids are younger they are usually really interested in things. And it so happened in this book that the girl was interested in trees. There is not much we know about the character other than she has a father, lives in a place where there are all four season, has a home, and loves trees. Showing of the setting was great. It went through all the seasons, and showed how the tree gets affected by it, and also the animals that live in or around the tree. It also shows how the tree grows over time. When reading it the characters sounded real. It felt like we got to know the tree almost like the little girl did. The theme about taking care of, nurturing, and growing was worthwhile in this story.

Three literary elements:

The three literary elements are plot, theme, and setting.  The plot of the story is a maple tree growing and being nurtured by a little girl. She watches it at night, and plants it. The theme of the story is about taking care of and helping nature. The little girl has a tree and from that tree they create many more trees. On the trees the seeds help the squirrels, and the bird food that she puts on it helps the birds. There is a distinct setting of the story as it goes through the seasons. It shows the tree grow, and get affected by the seasons.

Illustrations and their relationship to the text:

The illustrations are all related to the text and correspond with what the text is trying to say. Each pages background is a different color, but it is related to what the text is trying to say, and to what season it is. Whenever there is a new animal, or something that the reader might not know what it is, there is small print next to that illustration saying what it is.

Mini lesson:

 Theme

I picked to do a mini lesson on theme, because I thought that this book really pointed out taking care of, and helping nature as it grows. In the mini lesson I would read the book and have them decide with my help what the theme of the story is. Then we would plant a flower, or some kind of plant, and each day take care of it and water it. I would tell them how important it is to take care of nature. I would also tell my students to try not to use that much paper towels when they go to the bathroom, because when you use too much of them, more trees have to get cut down.  They might have connection with this thought because they just read about a maple tree that they have acquired a relationship with.

Target Audience:

The target audience is children in pre-k to 3^rd grade. It is also to kids who like trees, or the environment. At the end of the book there is an extra part where it talks about how to take care and plant a tree.