Cover of Twenty Autumns: 20 Classic Fall Poems for Children, Illustrated and Explained — a child in a yellow coat sits on a stone wall above an autumn valley as leaves blow past.
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Twenty Autumns

20 Classic Fall Poems for Children, Illustrated and Explained

The autumn companion to Twenty Summers. Twenty classic fall poems by Dickinson, Dunbar, Longfellow, Riley, Stevenson, Rossetti and others — each one given a full-page watercolor and a friendly page that explains it in plain words. Made to be read aloud, again and again.

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Paperback · Read-aloud · Ages 4–8 · 20 poems

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Ages 4–8Early readers & read-aloud
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20 poemsFive autumn sections
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16 poetsClassic voices, carefully sourced
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94 pagesA painting for every poem
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8.5 × 8.5 inSquare picture-book format

🍂 Book four in the series — available now

Twenty poems, twenty watercolors, and a friendly explanation for every one. In paperback, ready to read aloud.

Buy on Amazon →Meet the summer companion

How every poem works

Worried classic poetry is too hard for little ones? Each poem comes in three gentle steps — the same signature format readers know from Twenty Summers.

A sample poem page: 'The Morns Are Meeker Than They Were' by Emily Dickinson, set in elegant type.
1 · The poem

Read it aloud

The original classic verse, beautifully set and short enough to share before bed.

A soft watercolor of a little girl in a marigold pinafore looking up into a red maple by a stone wall and a stream.
2 · The picture

Look together

A soft, low-stimulation watercolor fills the whole facing page — one painting for every single poem.

A sample explanation page with sections titled In plain words, What to notice, and Words to know.
3 · The explanation

Understand it

In plain words, What to notice, and Words to know — a friendly companion page that quietly builds vocabulary and a love of language.

Twenty autumn poems, five gentle sections

A keepsake collection that follows the season all the way down — from the first golden mornings to the first frost and goodnight.

  • I
    First Golden DaysThe Morns Are Meeker Than They Were · September · Autumn · Merry Autumn
  • II
    Leaves, Trees & Woodland GamesCome, Little Leaves · October's Party · The Squirrel · Autumn Fires
  • III
    Wind, Rain & Flying SouthThe Swallow · The Moon's the North Wind's Cooky · Rain · The Owl
  • IV
    Harvest, Home & MoonlightOctober's Bright Blue Weather · When the Frost is on the Punkin · The Harvest Moon · Thanksgiving Day
  • V
    First Frost & GoodnightHow the Leaves Came Down · The Frost · November Night · The Moon
The book's table of contents, part one — sections I to III with poem titles and poets. The book's table of contents, part two — sections IV and V, plus About the Poets and Sources.

Verses by sixteen poets, each with a short biography at the back of the book:

Emily Dickinson Helen Hunt Jackson Alexander Posey Paul Laurence Dunbar George Cooper Alexina B. White Robert Louis Stevenson Christina Rossetti Vachel Lindsay Alfred, Lord Tennyson James Whitcomb Riley Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Lydia Maria Child Susan Coolidge Hannah Flagg Gould Adelaide Crapsey

Set from the printed page

Children's anthologies quietly shorten and rewrite old poems all the time. This one does not.

  • ◆Every one of the twenty texts is set from a named, dated edition — the book lists them all.
  • ◆Each text was then collated against a second source before it went to the page.
  • ◆Source notes for all twenty poems at the back, with a note on public domain.
  • ◆A short biography of every poet, so a child can put a face and a place to a name.
  • ◆A glossary of old or unusual words on every explanation page — the "Words to know" list.
  • ◆Riley's dialect spelling is kept as he wrote it, with a note for the grown-up reading aloud.

"Over the river, and through the wood"
Most children meet Lydia Maria Child's Thanksgiving poem in a four-verse version. Twenty Autumns prints her complete original twelve stanzas — the whole ride to grandfather's house, snow, dog, pudding and all.

Watercolor: Lumi the unicorn and her friends dance in a ring of fallen leaves in a golden wood while the wind plays a lute.

Spot some familiar friends

Look closely and you'll find the gentle friends from the Cozy Pebble Stories world wandering in and out of the pictures — Lumi the unicorn, Mossy, Rio, Noa and Lia, plus Teo and Nyla, who debut in this book. Seven friends in all, introduced on their own spread at the front. A quiet little game for repeat readings, and a warm bridge from our songs and stories to the page.

Watch the stories & songs Read about Twenty Summers
Cover of Twenty Summers: 20 Classic Children's Poems, Illustrated and Explained.
✦ The companion volume · Available now

Twenty Summers

Autumn came second. Twenty Summers is where the format began — twenty classic summer poems by Stevenson, Rossetti, Dickinson, Lear and Field, each with its own watercolor and its own plain-words page. The two books sit together on a shelf and carry a child right through the year.

Read about Twenty Summers →

"A screen-quiet keepsake to read aloud on a dark afternoon — and a gentle first introduction to the poems children will meet again for the rest of their lives."

🍂Available now

Twenty Autumns is here

Twenty classic poems, twenty watercolors, and a friendly explanation for every one — a screen-quiet keepsake for the dark afternoons.

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