Sunshine Makes the Seasons

Bibliographic Information: Branley, F. (1974). Sunshine Makes the Seasons. Illus. Shelley Freshman. New York, NY: Thomas Y. Crowell Company.

Brief Annotation: A scientific explanation as to why season’s change is explained thought this book. Helpful pictures of the Earth are included to show what the globes position is as it changes seasons. To connect the reader the book questions if it is currently day time or night time, and what season the reader is in; while it shows spots on the Nothern and Southern Hemispheres marked with ‘you are about here.’ Beyond just seasons this book takes the reader a couple steps further and touches on climate, poles, orbit, the axis, and seasons at the equator and poles.

Grade Level: 1-4

Readers who will like this: Children who have an interest in or are learning about seasons; Children who have questions of why on a wide range of topics; Anyone trying to learn more about the Earth

Response/Rating: 4; I am currently learning about this topic in my environmental biology class, which is also where the recommendation for this book came from. The book is written in a child-friendly language while still using correct scientific terminology. Science, in my opinion, is not an easy subject to translate into a child-friendly tone, but this book manages to do that. I especially liked that the there were pictures with “you are about here” labels on them, connecting children to what they are learning. Most importunately I liked that there was a closure to the book on the very last page that was bright and short with the main concepts stated, “Sunshine makes the seasons- sunshine and the tilt of the earth’s axis.”

One question you would ask before a read aloud: Why do we have seasons? What are the seasons?