A jack o lantern, a scarecrow, a turkey and a football, plus about thirty six more things that only turn up between September and Thanksgiving. More than forty projects, none of them longer than five minutes.

The method is what makes these books work. A candy apple begins as one open arc, picks up its stick at step three, and comes out dipped and glossy at step four. A scarecrow starts as an oval head on a straight pole, then gains a hat, a coat, a face and its straw over six steps. Alli Koch never asks a child to draw a thing. She asks for a shape, then another shape, until the thing is sitting there on the page.

The paper is what the publisher calls thick and sturdy, it lies flat while they work, and a finished picture tears out along its perforation for the refrigerator door or the classroom wall.

Paperback with lay flat binding, 80 pages, 9 by 9 in, with foil on the cover. Paige Tate & Co., 5 August 2025. ISBN-13 9781963183108. Publisher age guidance is 7 to 12, and it says children from about five follow along with help.

Go back to Spring Things Or across to Summer Things The year round one is All the Things