Firsts and Lasts: The Changing Seasons

Each season’s traits are captured through snapshots of firsts and lasts in this change-forward chronicle by Schubert and Robin. In cut-paper collage scenes, a pale-skinned cast plays in the melting snow and revels among emerging greenery. Among other things, Schubert suggests, spring embodies “the last time we hear ‘Snow day!’ ” and “the first time we see new grass.” Summer, in turn, features the end of shut windows and the start of “june bugs hitting screens,” autumn is a time for final ice cream cones and first bowls of soup, and a last winter playground visit is followed by the year’s inaugural hot chocolate. Schubert’s indicative descriptions combine with Robin’s textured portraits for a nostalgic ode focusing on weather in the global north. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)