Applesauce Weather

Applesauce Weather
by Helen Frost
illustrated by Amy June Bates
Candlewick, August 2016
review ARC provided by the publisher

When the first apple falls from the tree, it's applesauce weather in Faith and Peter's family. But this year will be different since Aunt Lucy died. Uncle Arthur comes back to the farm, but he's not the same.

The personalities of the two children shine through their poems -- Lucy, young enough to believe that the twinkle will come back to Uncle Arthur's eyes if only they are patient, and Peter, old enough to be interested in the girl down the road, but young enough to be pulled in by Uncle Arthur's stories.

And then there's Uncle Arthur, a master storyteller who spins a yarn (or tells the truth?) about how he came to have a missing finger.

Even Aunt Lucy has a voice in poems that begin seven of the eight parts of the book.

A quick read, a quiet, gentle story, and sweet illustrations throughout make this an easily accessible verse novel for a reader new to the genre or one who is missing a beloved older relative.