A Fall Ball for ALL: Nature Throws a Party in Wisconsin

Yesterday morning I pulled out of my driveway and nearly every tree in my yard was leafy green. When I returned in the evening I found half (or more) of those leaves were sporting glorious fall golds, oranges, and reds. It's no surprise that so many people who live in temperate climates list Fall as our favorite season. Adjectives (and even camera lenses) can't do justice to the spectacle nature provides at this time of year. The sudden color adds to my recognition that a single windy night could- WHOOOOMP -snatch that overhead brilliance from the sunlight above and cover the ground with a carpet of leaves. 

MIllbrook Press, 2018

There are times, like yesterday, when Mother Nature's hand feels very deliberate, intentional.
Jamie A. Swenson's latest picture book, A FALL BALL FOR ALL, captures that sense of intention by giving a personified voice to The Wind.
While I felt Autumn's painterly hand in yesterday's sudden transformation of color, Swenson's book gives life to the wind with this beckoning message:
"Once upon a golden day,/Autumn Wind blew in to play,/ Whooshing leaves into the air--/ Orange, brown, purple, everywhere!"

With that irresistible opening, the stage is set in a Wisconsin woodland  (a location Swenson confirms in the author note back pages). 
The animals welcome the news, delaying migration and hibernation in order to participate. The Windfall Ball is coming!

While Swenson's rhyming text swirls from page to page, rich with delightful descriptions and figurative language, illustrator Chiara Fedele's double-page spreads saturate the scenes with movement, revealing growing enthusiasm among the guests, and conveying expressive wildlife postures and features. 

Swenson's text utilizes both familiar and expansive vocabulary, with a lilt:

"Gusts and gales and tempest forces/ set a fete with seven courses:/

Cranberries, chestnuts, corn and plums,/ Sunflowers, daisies, chrysanthemums."

On the spread with this text the listed elements are pictured, along with pumpkins so robust they make the page look heavy, magnificent mushrooms, late season daisies, and more. On each page I was seeking out faces, tails, and beaks- and any other signs that the complex mix of residents of the woods might be tucked among the dense visual images, anticipating a celebration on each pre-ball day.

There is a brief note about the TWO meanings of windfall on back pages:

The actual fruit and other crops blown to the ground by the wind, 
and 

An unexpected gift or good fortune.

That note called to mind the many years when I lived on large acreage in a rural area. The land included an overgrown orchard. Windfall fruits attracted countless furry and feathered wildlife to the area. As critters are together in the dark they occasionally generated quite a bit of noise.  Upon hearing it, I would hope that their disagreements would end with no one harmed. Now I realize it may have been rousing windfall parties like the one we are privileged to attend in A FALL BALL FOR ALL.