Apple Cider Making Days (Single Titles)

Alex and Abigail join the whole family in processing and selling apples and apple cider at their grandfather's farm.

PreSchool-Grade 2-It is cider-making time on grandpa's apple farm, and Alex, Abigail, and the rest of the family pick and sort the fruit. Only the odd ones, by shape or color, are tossed into the chopper to make the apple mush. The mush then goes to the press where the juice is squeezed out. Once the cider is ready, the family opens the Apple Barn where they all help sell the apples, cider, and homemade jams and pastries. The realistic illustrations are soft with autumnal colors and show the process that results in that glass of cider. Although listed as fiction, there is more straightforward information than story. The addition of the children makes this book more personal for young students. A useful purchase for most collections.
Elaine Lesh Morgan, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

PreS-Gr. 2. It's cider-making time on Grandpa's apple farm, and the whole family helps. Alex and Abigail pick bright red apples and carry bushel baskets to the wagon. They stand along a conveyer belt helping to sort the perfect (eating) apples from the not-so-perfect (cider) apples. Later, they watch as the apples are chopped into what Grandpa calls "apple mush" and pressed into cider. The cider is bottled and sold, and the family celebrates the labor with glasses of the sweet drink. The comfortable, colorful art brings little ones up close to the process and gives them a good look at the conveyor belts and presses and other machinery involved; the scene of the apple orchard store, shelves filled with jams and honey, gallons of cider, and pies and doughnuts all neatly stacked for purchase, is especially nice. A double-page spread, "Cider Lore," following the story, provides wonderful tidbits about the cider-making process. An excellent resource for autumn units or to use in preparation for a trip to the orchard. Helen Rosenberg
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