Signs of Spring! Happy Springtime by Kate McMullan

At about this time year, on the sidewalks around primary and elementary schools, less-than-perfectly straight lines of warmly-dressed young scholars may be seen trudging behind teachers on a slow-moving walk, interrupted often by someone pointing or darting out of line to pick up unknown objects and scanning the skies and trees nearby. They are re-enacting one of the oldest rites of human life, the expectant search for SIGNS OF SPRING!

HERE'S A MESSAGE FOR SCHOOL BUS RIDERS, HEADING OUT ON A DARK COLD MORNING...

FOR THOSE WITH STUCK SNOWSUIT ZIPPERS...

WEARING EARMUFFS AND TWO PAIRS OF MITTENS...

DO NOT LOSE HEART!

For beneath their very feet the earth is continuing its annual circuit of the sun. Each day is longer than the one before, and the chilly, muddy earth under their boots is preparing for its really big show of the year!

Primary scholars are not the only ones waiting for Mother Earth's biggest EXTRAVAGANZA...

GROGGY FROGS WAKING FROM THEIR WINTER SLEEP, TREES UNFURLING LEAVES, PINK WORMS POKING UP...

WINTER-BORN BABIES WHO'VE NEVER SEEN A SPRING....

Everyone celebrates that time that ancient astronomers watched for, that EQUINOX, that time when days begin to grow longer than nights, when grass grows so fast you can almost see it doing it, little birds take their first flight, bikes, shorts, and running sneakers appear along with the crack of the baseball bat, and spring peepers in the pond where picnickers watch, and birdsongs begin provide the background music until...the big day arrives--SUMMER SOLSTICE.

SO LONG SPRINGTIME,

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

Spring never fails to delight us, no matter how many we've seen, and noted author Kate McMullan joyfully traces in lyrical language its progress through the landscape and into our consciousness every year. Watch and ... Wait for it!

Illustrated exuberantly by artist Sujean Rim, this is a great book to get youngsters observing the signs of Earth's heralded big production each year, in Kate McMullan's Happy Springtime! (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, 2021). In a perfect melding of narration and illustration, it's a breath of fresh air for the winter-weary brain. Says School Library Journal, "Rim's watercolor, pencil, crayon, and collage illustrations are lush and fluid like snow melting into the new growth taking its place. These blend beautifully with McMullan's springtime celebration, warming the fingers, toes, and hearts of readers."