Life Cycle of an Apple Pie: The Apple Pie that Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson

These are the apples, juicy and red,

that went in the pie,

warm and sweet,

that Papa baked...

Lauren Thompson's recently published The Apple Pie That Papa Baked puts the humble apple pie in a cosmic framework in this delightfully nostalgic story of apple-picking time.

The story begins with a little girl wakening in her rustic farmhouse to the sound of a rooster's crowing and the happy sight of her father heading out to the orchard with his apple-picking ladder. Following him, the child catches up in time to spend the day together collecting apples, until the hungry pair return to share the making of a deliciously juicy apple pie.

Thompson's lyric text echoes the format of the traditional "This is the house that Jack built...." story as it takes a sweeping view of the earth's cycle of life which brings an apple pie to our table:

This is the world, blooming with life,
That spins with the sun, fiery and bright,
That lights the sky, wide and fair...

The text celebrates the water cycle which "drops the rain, cool and fresh" to water the roots of the crooked but strong tree which bears the fruit which yields a treat for the eye and, warm and sweet, for the child, her father, and us, too.

Jonathan Bean's 1940's-style illustrations, reminiscent of Helen Sewall's original illustrations for Wilder's "Little House" books, utilize a sepia and black palette and curving lines which evoke the cycles of the earth and sun perfectly.

This is a great book for reading aloud and a great seasonal book for teachers to read for those units on autumn and apples. Pair it with the Caldecott Honor book Rain Makes Applesauce, or the more recent The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons and The Apple Pie Tree, by Zoe Hall, and all you'll need is--the pie!