The Science Behind The Splendor

It's as if there is a contest unknown to humans.  It happens annually.  This year the champion resides in my neighborhood.  More than a month ago, it burst into brilliance, nearly overnight.  You could almost hear it shouting---"I won! I won!" Even today it stands out in a sea of green here and in contrast to the rolling hills behind it.

Predictions are in place for when the rest of the trees will be releasing their vivid colors.  Time will tell if they will ring true.



 Summer Green To Autumn Gold: Uncovering Leaves' Hidden Colors (Millbrook Press, August 8, 2019) written and illustrated by Mia Posada explains with careful clarity the science behind the shift of hues in our trees from season to season.

What kinds of leaves do you see in the summer?

In summer the leaves on trees are variations on an array of green.  These tints are formed in the cells of leaves.  We are told chloroplasts inside cells hold chlorophyll, a green color.   Chlorophyll not only colors the leaves but contributes to the creation of food by helping to blend gas from the air, water and energy from the sun.

Did you know there is something hiding behind the chlorophyll?  It's other pigments.  These pigments remain concealed until summer slowly switches to autumn.  The cooler temperatures halt the production of food.  For now, chlorophyll's task is complete.  It vanishes.  Now the unseen hues appear.

We will see yellows, oranges, reds, browns and mixes of these colors.  The type of tree, the rainfall, temperature and sunlight can cause changes from year to year.  As the season progresses, the stems of the leaves begin to break away from the branches, fashioning a bright blanket on the ground.  Smaller creatures that live on and under the ground use the fallen leaves for their meals and homes.

By the first snowfall most of the trees will have lost their fall foliage.  Like the rest of the world, winter is a pause, a period of little or no activity.  Buds await the first signs of spring to bring back the green.  Chlorophyll is ready to work.


By beginning this book with a question, Mia Posada as author invites readers to participate in her exploration of leaves and their colors.  Concise, explicit sentences provide information.  Within these sentences certain words are enlarged, made bold or colored differently than the other words.  In this manner readers are better able to recognize words they know or enlarge their vocabulary with richer descriptive words.  Here is a passage.

Slowly, summer creeps toward fall.
The air cools, and the nights grow longer.
These changes tell trees it is time to get ready for winter.


As you look at the open and matching dust jacket and book case, starting with the front, it's as if you are peering through a bunch of scooped-up leaves to read the title, some from summer and others from autumn.  It's a nice design technique to have the title font vary in color to match the leaves using purple (a complementary color to yellow) in the sub-title letters.  To the left, on the back, still on a crisp white canvas, we are given a panoramic view.  In the distance on the left are three trees colored in orange, red and yellow.  Much closer on the right is a single trees with leaves in oranges.  Falling leaves are very close to us.  The front and back flaps on the jacket contain a portion of an interior image.

A deep green covers the opening and closing endpapers.  On the initial title page, a similar gathering of leaves frames the text.  On the verso (dedication and publication information) page a landscape scene on the bottom right and a tree branch with a couple of lady bugs on the upper right direct our attention to the text.  Opposite, on the formal title page, less leaves in greens and reds, yellows and oranges border the words.

Each page turn supplies us with a double-page picture with the illustration rendered

using cut-paper collage with watercolor.

On the first image we see all kinds of green leaves, sixteen in number, spread from page edge to page edge and labeled.  On subsequent pages Mia Posada as illustrator presents pictorial scenes or moves us close to the leaves or branches. Twice she magnifies a spot on a leaf to supply a more precise explanation.  As she takes us through the seasons, we return to a dock on a shore for continuity.  Other animal life is included in many of the images.

One of my many favorite illustrations is in the fall.  Close to readers on the right is the dock with the red canoe tied to it.  Several trees on the right and one to the left of the gutter in yellows, reds and oranges are close to us.  Spread in a curve around the shoreline is a collection of breathtaking colors courtesy of the trees.  Five birds fly in the curve of water and sky.  This is a beautiful presentation.


For curious readers, budding biologists, a unit on seasons, autumn, leaves or plants, Summer Green To Autumn Gold: Uncovering Leaves' Hidden Colors written and illustrated by Mia Posada is an excellent choice.  The gorgeous illustrations ask us to stop and appreciate the beauty nature offers us but they also furnish us with a pleasing background for learning the given information.  At the close of the book Mia Posada includes paragraphs titled Different Kinds Of Leaves, Pigments In Nature, Fall Colors Around The World and From Fall To Fall, Colors Can Change.  There is also a glossary and Hands-on Experiments with Leaves and Pigments.  I highly recommend this title for your personal and professional libraries.  I am grateful to author and scientist Melissa Stewart for recommending this book.

To learn more about Mia Posada and her other work, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images at the opening page and by clicking on Read Excerpt.  On the publisher's blog Mia Posada answers questions about this book.

Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to view the titles selected on Wednesday, September 25, 2019 by other participants in the 2019 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

Groovin' Movin' Greenery

Too late for a proper garden but unable to resist the temptation of growing something to eat, two large pots on my deck are home for a single pumpkin and zucchini plant.  In less than sixty days six inches have become five feet of winding vines weaving among annuals planted in layers of flower boxes.  Yellow blossoms dot the strands of green, signs of tasty goodness to come.

Plants in all seasons of the year are a promise of renewal, a continuation of life.  Plants Can't Sit Still (Millbrook Press, a division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., August 1, 2016) written by Rebecca E. Hirsch with illustrations by Mia Posada presents their fascinating methods of motion.  You'll be ready to focus on flora with new eyes.  

Plants don't have feet 

or fins or wings,

yet they can move

in many ways.

Look closely and you'll discover

that plants

cant't

sit still.

They begin beneath the ground twisting and turning their way upward toward their essential needs; heat and light.  Some roots form a chain sending up new plants from a central point.  A single plant may grow many arms reaching over the ground.  Vines may need other plants or structures to spread vertically or they contain hidden strengths.

Branches on plants can act as hands repelling and capturing enemies.  Plants can have internal clocks.  Have you ever walked outside after dark to see how they shift and change?  

Doing different dances, partnering with air, seeds spread on the ground or from high places.  They can burst forth from small pods attached to plant bodies.  Seeds can be sneaky attaching to unsuspecting animals or people.  Sometimes seeds become a vessel transported on water until they discover new ground.  Every place they land, regardless of how they move, gives seeds a chance to begin anew.  

An array of action words, verbs, selected by Rebecca E. Hirsch portrays the movements of plants in ways readers might not initially notice.  She takes us beneath the ground, along the ground, and upward, always upward.  Their amazing survival techniques and hidden clocks are descriptively depicted.  Like real life, Hirsch brings us full circle providing us with information on seeds and how they are spread. The More About Plants pages at the book's end gives readers a conversational overview of plants in general but also supplies us with more in-depth information about twenty particular plants, including their scientific names.  You will be pleasantly surprised by what you learn.  Here is another sample passage from the book.

A seed is a plant

built for travel.

Seeds can whirl

like helicopters

or float on

parachutes

or glide on papery wings.

But they 

can't 

sit 

still.

Readers are greeted with a rainbow of color and plants performing many movements in the collage on the front of the matching dust jacket and book case.  Their lifting, dropping, popping and shifting surround the title text which appears to be in motion too.  To the left, on the back, readers see a scene from nighttime, moonflowers opening and raising their faces to the light.  On the opening and closing endpapers, looking from left to right, seven individual illustrations on a pale blue background represent the cycle of a dandelion from parachuting seeds, to tiny sprouts, a small plant, yellow blossoms and back to an old plant ready to release seeds.  Morning glory vines and flowers frame the verso and title pages.

Rendered in cut paper collage with watercolor eight of the eighteen illustrations created by Mia Posada span from left to right across two pages.  Ten of the images are on single pages but they appear together intricately bound by background color and the type of plant pictured.  The use of light and dark and layers generate a life-like texture.  

The perspectives are varied as we view the places these plants move.  Tucked in each illustration are other creatures; a blue butterfly, a bird enjoying the seeds from a sunflower, creeping caterpillars, moths, a mouse and small red ladybugs to name a few.  It's as if we are surrounded by the worlds Posada makes for us.  

One of my favorite of many illustrations is of the exploding pods attached to a squirting cucumber.  From left to right pale green leaves, portions of vines and pale yellow blossoms spread.  On arched stems hang the pods.  One of them is shooting out seeds crossing the gutter from left to the right zooming over a full bloom.  A small green frog sits on one of the leaves.    

Plants Can't Sit Still written by Rebecca E. Hirsch with illustrations by Mia Posada is a way to discover movement secrets of plants more commonly known and seen by readers.  We can walk in the wild world, our neighborhoods or in our backyards to discover these truths.  In addition to the More About Plants section there is an author's note, glossary and more information through books and websites.  The time lapse videos at one of the websites are amazing.  It might be fun to pair this title with Rooting for You: A Moving Up Story written by Susan Hood with pictures by Matthew Cordell.

To learn more about Rebecca E. Hirsch please visit her website by following the link attached to her name.  She also maintains a blog linked here.  At the Lerner website Mia Posada participates in a short Q & A.  In a longer interview Rebecca E. Hirsch answers questions at Lerner.  To get a glimpse at interior pages please visit the publisher's website.

Be sure to stop by Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to read about the other titles chosen by bloggers participating in the 2016 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.