children’s Books About Seasons in the Countryside
The Year at Maple Hill Farm
I’d like to share with you a couple of books about seasons in the countryside, written back in the last century before my children were even born. The Year at Maple Hill Farm, and Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm by Alice and Martin Provensen, are charming depictions of events by month in a New England farm. The focus is on the animals (feathered and furred) on the farm and among the wildlife, and offers us a little window into the rhythms of nature.
What I like best about the story is that it is so low key, so ordinary – and real. Here in August; “The pig has tipped over her pail. Now she has a cool mud puddle to sleep in.”
The authors start their story in January, and it’s as if they are talking directly to us, a visitor on their farm. “January is a winter month. The ground is covered with snow. It is a cold, grey time of year and night falls early.” Simple illustrations show us the sheep, cows, horses, chickens in the barnyard, and outside the fence, the deer foraging for windfall apples or a salt lick. Lots of things are going on in the illustrations, and we can see the animals have their own personalities just as the people do.
Each month more animals are introduced to us in their habitat – geese, rooks, a napping water rat. The nanny goat has a kid, the grey barn cat has kittens, and the “mad March hare is hurrying in all directions”.
Summer is hot and busy, when the frogs croak and crickets chirp, and bugs abound. By autumn the days are shorter and cooler, the harvest is in, and food is being stored by everyone for winter. The birds are migrating, wild geese honk, and December brings snow and cold. The year turns around again to January.
Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm
Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm introduces us to their two dogs, five horses, a pig, some geese, lots of chickens, a few cows, a few goats, several sheep, and four special cats, with their unique and quirky personalities.
The Real Maple Hill Farm
Alice and Martin Provensen actually owned and lived at Maple Hill Farm, which perhaps is why their description seems so personal. Fewer family-run farms like Maple Hill Farm exist today, and fewer children are knowledgeable about what goes on in the rural world. I have found that young children are intrigued by the animal world, and these two books are a wonderful exploration into that world.
We’re at the height of the summer season here in Virginia, and July is the time of year I think the most about the seasons changing. It’s the hottest here in late July, so now is the time I look forward to autumn coming, leaves starting to come down and some relief from the heat.
When we retired and moved to the mountains, the presence of nature and of wildlife has been one of the biggest sources of interest, not to mention surprise and delight. Introducing my grandchildren to the beauty and realities of natural life, to the fruits of the garden and orchard, and the evidence of wildlife all around us, will instill in them something that will serve them well as their generation figures out how to live on our beleaguered planet.
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