Peepers by Eve Bunting

As I take a picture walk through the book Peepers by Eve Bunting, I’m drawn in to the colorful scenery illustrates so poetically by James Ransome.

Two sons accompany their dad on the Leaf Peeper Tours.  They are not enthused, but dutifully help their father.  To pass the time, the story is sprinkled with their kid-like antics.  “Behind their backs Jim moose-prances and makes antlers with his fingers.”  The boys are amused as the tourists sigh and ooohh about autumn’s beauty.

Time passes and in the end, both boys begin to notice nature in its winter’s newness.  Both seem surprised, embarrassed, as they realize they’ve become like the Peepers.

Savorings for reading and in writing for Peepers:

• Descriptive – “Aspens shower gold into the water.”
• Similes – “Our bus crawls slow as a caterpillar.”
• Kid’s realism – “Jim about busts laughing.”
• Show don’t tell – “Jim and I roll our eyes.”
• Passage of time – beginning of autumn until the leaves have all fallen
• Reflection
• Science – different types of trees:  “shagbark hickory trees, red-feathered sumac, speckled adlers“