Perfect for the reading season of autumn! Recommended picture books that will captivate elementary school children
Acorns are falling, and a pleasant breeze is blowing.
The season that makes our hearts race with the sights of autumn has arrived.
How about enjoying the changing season with elementary school children through picture books about autumn nature, moon viewing, and fallen leaves? Here, we introduce picture books perfect for both reading season and art season, where you can feel the autumn scenery through delicate illustrations and heartwarming stories.
These picture books are also ideal for read-aloud time, letting you relax and enjoy the beauty of autumn nature.
Perfect for autumn reading! Recommended picture books that elementary school kids will love (1–10)
14 Mice and the Pumpkin
Among the “14 Mice” series, this is the perfect book for autumn and the Halloween season! At Dad’s suggestion—“Let’s sow some seeds”—the children decide to grow pumpkins.
But cultivating crops is no easy task.
The 14 mice are kept busy day after day, keeping pests away and protecting the plants from wind and rain.
Precisely because of those efforts, the joy of harvest is all the greater.
Another highlight is the variety of dishes made with the pumpkins they gather.
By the time you reach that part, you’ll feel the deeper meaning of the opening line, “These are seeds of life.”
Five Nice Mice: The Night of the Concert
Of the Five Nice Mice series, the one I recommend for autumn is this volume themed around a concert.
Moved by a chorus of frogs, the mice begin making instruments and challenge themselves to perform.
It fits the idea of “autumn for the arts,” and the recital is held on the night of the full moon.
I hope you’ll read it while imagining the beautiful autumn moon.
Also pay attention to the frogs and mice who connect through music, and to the beautifully chosen words that almost let you hear the lovely performance.
A Big, Big Sweet Potato
As a fall event, sweet potato digging field trips are a true classic.
In this story, the much-anticipated sweet potato digging trip gets postponed due to rain.
The children are disappointed, but when they hear that the potatoes grow bigger while they sleep, they imagine huge potatoes and draw pictures of them.
From there, they start thinking about how they could dig those giant potatoes up.
Their childlike, free, and bold ideas are adorable, and you can’t help but feel it would be so fun if they could really do that.
It’s a wonderful book that turns disappointment into delightful imagination.
A big pumpkin
The Halloween picture book The Big Pumpkin brings to mind The Gigantic Turnip from its title and storyline.
The protagonist is a witch who wants to eat pumpkin pie on Halloween.
She heads to the patch in high spirits, but the pumpkin is too big to carry.
Halloweeny characters like a ghost, a vampire, and a mummy appear one after another and try to move the pumpkin, but they all fail.
Then a clever bat shows up…
Can the bat carry the pumpkin? Will the witch get to eat her pumpkin pie? Read the book to find out.
Fallen Leaves Market
In autumn, we pick up fallen leaves and acorns and enjoy making crafts with them, don’t we? This picture book is full of uniquely autumn things that spark the imagination for making and creating.
The protagonist is a girl named Sacchan, and she visits the “Ochiba Ichiba,” the Fallen Leaves Market.
There, rows of marvelous and mysterious items await—feasts made from nuts, fish crafted from fallen leaves, and more.
Acorn caps are used as money, foxes come to shop, and the whole book is a heart-pounding, exciting adventure.
Monster of the moonlit night
If you’re looking for a fun, laugh-out-loud picture book, how about “Tsukiyo no Kaijū” (The Moonlit Monster)? The story is set by a lake where the moonlight is beautiful.
By the lake, there’s a man who has been waiting ten years for a monster to appear.
And one night, a monster finally shows up.
But when you take a closer look, something seems a bit… off.
The book shows illustrations of an imagined monster, and just when you’re brimming with excitement—“What kind of monster will it be?!”—there’s an unexpected twist.
Instead of feeling let down, you’ll find yourself laughing out loud.
If you’d like, give it a read and uncover the monster’s true identity!
Pulling a cart
It’s a story about selling the various things a family has made over the course of a year to prepare for winter.
The beautiful landscapes shown in the scenes where they walk, pulling a cart, and the modest, traditional, quiet way of life make this a book that even adults will find themselves drawn into.
They shear the sheep, spin the wool into yarn, and use it to make shawls and gloves.
For children today, who can get anything just by going to a store, such depictions may seem curious and fresh.
The story unfolds in a calm, steady way, but there’s a slightly nail-biting moment when they even end up selling something quite unexpected.