From Publishers Weekly
Apples by Ken Robbins uses hand-tinted photographs and accessible text to explain how apples are grown, harvested, pressed into cider and otherwise used as food. An author's note elucidates apple-speak ("Today, when we say, `You're the apple of my eye,' it means you're something very special to me") and points out the fruit's role in literature and folklore. Ages 6-9.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 2-4-"An apple is a wonderful thing-a perfect handful of portable food, wrapped in a package of its very own skin." Robbins wraps his tribute to the popular fruit in a slim package of simple text and artistically rendered photographs. He begins by explaining the growing cycle, goes on to discuss the ways apples are enjoyed as food, and concludes with some added notes on foods and beverages, common phrases, and bits of history and literature. Robbins's photographs, enhanced through hand tinting or soft focus, succeed in varying degrees. The first few pages show a static assembly of four apples on a white page, an odd view of a small tree trunk that doesn't demonstrate the accompanying point, and a blurred unlovely view of trees in blossom. Suddenly, in mid-book, the facing pages become beautiful, coherent units. An enlarged lush view of apple blossoms resembling a fine, soft painting faces an exquisite cutaway of the flower's stamens, pistil, and seed chamber. A vibrant, homely pot of apple chunks atop a stove faces a smaller bowl of thick applesauce. Appealing portraits of children enjoying the fruit and a few views of orchard workers and equipment round out the presentation, and the final page depicts 12 popular varieties. Gail Gibbons's Apples (Holiday, 2000), Betsy Maestro's How Do Apples Grow? (HarperCollins, 1992), and Charles Micucci's Life and Times of the Apple (Orchard, 1996) offer more detailed explanations, but there's always room for another apple, and this pleasant introduction is a welcome addition.
Margaret Bush, Simmons College, BostonCopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
