Fall Books Call

Yeah, September! The month Clover likes best. So many awesome books are born in this noteworthy month. “Fall Books Call” like sirens beckoning with their promise of entertainment and enlightenment. There’s simply no better way to spend time than in the company of characters who become fast friends as the pages turn and the fading sun offers its last hurrah.

As always, Clover has scoured the wide world for the best of the best, three books certain to bee-light. Page On—enjoy!

The Community Literacy Foundation, in partnership with Neighborhood Reads, and with support from its sponsors, provides these books at no cost to 38 schools in Washington, Union, Pacific, St. Clair and surrounding communities and to the Washington Public Library. Learn more at CommunityLiteracyFoundation.org.

Youngest Read

All is right at Freedom Elementary School, the setting for “Recess,” by Lane Smith. This smile-awhile is big, brash and awash with color, totally capturing the pure joy kids feel when they spill out of school for a brain break on the playground. Using overlarge text and zany sketches, Smith knocks it out of the park with this pick.

“At school, we read, we write, we learn, we study. It’s pretty fun. But sometimes we need a break from all that fun, right? That’s why there’s recess.”

Patience is required to sit through math, media, spelling, gym and music before doors open for some riotous relief. Smith imagines each class with gut-busting hilarity, “How about math? If Jeri has 34 bananas and Jon takes 2 bananas and Jorge takes 3 bananas and the class iguana eats 4 bananas, how many people can yell ‘Bananas!”? The answer comes at recess: “Everyone yell “Bananas!”

Spelling gets its due, too, when D-U-C-K must be mastered, a word that leads to more “quacks” at recess than a duck dance. Smith puts each subject to the test in “Recess,” and the result is a feel-good, goofy read-aloud that earns a perfect score in Clover’s book.

Buy the book at Neighborhood Reads

Middle Read

At school the students don’t like spending recess indoors. All but Ellie, the star of “Ellie Has a Secret” by Amelia Bothe. Being inside means Ellie can search for treasures buried in the sandbox table in the classroom, brightly colored trinkets and shells. This is Ellie’s favorite pastime. Especially when she discovers a mottled, shiny shell with an opening along its middle.

Ellie is so entranced that she drops the shell into her pocket as the kids line up for lunch. While the others talk and eat, Ellie scoots off by herself to examine her newfound treasure, surprised to notice two dark eyes peering out of the opening. The eyes belong to a strange creature, that said it was “Ellie’s secret,” something to be kept to herself.

At first Ellie is thrilled, but soon, like a real secret, the burden of the creature becomes oppressive, as it gradually grows, bit by bit, into a monstrosity that weighs the child down.

Engaging, emotion-laced illustrations give life to Ellie’s predicament in a book that carries a valuable message about the value of honesty, in a clever, imaginative way.

Buy the book at Neighborhood Reads

Oldest Read

An enduring classic by Natalie Babbitt, published in 1975, returns with a beautiful new look—readers are sure to be taken with the graphic novel “Tuck Everlasting,” adapted and illustrated by K. Woodman-Maynard.

Just outside the Village of Treegap the elderly Tuck parents wait for their sons, Miles and Jesse Tuck, to come home. We then meet Winnie Foster, a town-girl bored by the humdrum of her life. Winnie wants excitement and makes plans to run away the next day, when a man dressed in yellow suddenly appears.

Winnie’s granny comes outside, seeming not to trust the stranger she hurries Winnie into the house—but not before the two of them tinkling sounds—“elf music” her granny says, noting she’s heard it before, something that shocks the stranger.

The music decides Winnie’s fate. She will run to the wood and discover the source of the music, “That would be something at least,” she says, and with that she’s off, with no idea of the enormity of what she’ll uncover.

The wood, which belongs to her family, is welcoming, then exciting when a boy appears, introducing himself as Jesse Tuck. At the boy’s feet is a fountain bubbling water out of the earth. Winnie is thirsty but the boy cautions her not to drink—a conundrum that puzzles Winnie, her confusion only growing when Jesse’s parents appear and hurry her away, concerned that she may drink the water of the mysterious fountain, calming her fears by telling Winnie they are her friends.

With literary expertise, the pieces of “Tuck Everlasting” fall into place in a poignant novel that raises questions about the wisdom of living forever. This beautiful rendition faithfully follows the original story, adding another layer of enjoyment with studied artwork certain reawaken interest in this lovely tale.

Buy the book at Neighborhood Reads

Written by Chris Stuckenschneider.

Copyright 2025, Community Literacy Foundation.