Ruby’s Falling Leaves based on the characters created by Rosemary Wells

This fall themed story brought back memories of my own grown daughter and her efforts at assembling a leaf collection project for a particularly demanding teacher. Is this assignment still out there for young students? If so, leaf identification, coupled with gathering the perfect sample and keeping it from drying out and crumbling to dust, is no small task. Good luck to your young foragers as they hunt and gather the perfect specimen.

Young Ruby is no slouch when it comes to her aim of gathering the best leaf collection book in the entire class. I remember how thick my own daughter’s project wound up. How do you get those holes aligned so the rings binding it together, line up. Beats me. I brought in the “Big Guns” for intricate details such as this – my husband.

Ruby finds it “cinchy” finding the elm, birch, oak, willow, and apple. The tricky duo are the Japanese maple and big tooth aspen!

One is found quite easily amid a pile of leaves Max has raked into a pile. The meaning of fall with its cascading leaves is too good for Max to resist enjoying in the exuberant free-fall (couldn’t resist) into a crunchy pile of leaves as Ruby desperately searches for the lone leaf to complete her prized project.

Will she and will he help or hinder her search? Unintended consequences and the luck of the fall will tell the tale.

Parents and kids will relate to this story of the quest for perfect school projects, and the lesson to let the leaves fall where they may!