Secrets of the Seasons: Orbiting the Sun in Our Backyard

Alice and friends from Secrets of the Garden return to enjoy her nature-filled backyard. This time, she learns to notice and welcome differences in weather, plants, and animal life in each of the four seasons of the temperate northern hemisphere. Throughout, airy pen and watercolor illustrations make the appeal of nature accessible to even the youngest readers.

Alice and friends from Secrets of the Garden (rev. 1/12) return to enjoy her nature-filled backyard. This time, she learns to notice and welcome differences in weather, plants, and animal life in each of the four seasons of the temperate northern hemisphere. The story begins at a point in the calendar familiar to this age group -- the end of summer, with the start of school looming -- and moves through the year. The children note easily recognizable signs of change, such as cooler temperatures and changing leaves, but also more advanced observations, such as the sounds of insect-free winter and bird-rich summer, and the shortening and lengthening of days. Accompanying the appealing main narrative are asides in which a pair of chickens (better suited to the ecology topics from the first book, but effective here as well) fill the dual role of scientific-fact-explainers and comic relief. They describe the astronomy concepts of rotation and revolution and the tilt of the earth's axis using helpful diagrams that illustrate the position of the earth relative to the sun across the seasons. Throughout, Lamont's airy pen-and-watercolor illustrations make accessible the appeal of nature to even the youngest readers. danielle j. ford