I liked the non-fiction parts best, sections where information is given about sugar maple trees, and I liked the illustrations, although I loved only a very few. Well, I thought I was going to love this when I opened the book and saw a leaf shape cut out of yellow over orange (I am often easily entertained) and I did like this book, but I wasn’t wowed. This is the first one I’ve read specifically for the club. Of the six monthly books for this club, I’d read two and I’m waiting for three to arrive. This is one of the books for October’s Autumn/Halloween theme at the Picture Books club, one of the Children's Books group's clubs. Nevertheless, somewhat recommended, but only in a rather limited fashion (as for me, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf is really and truly just a very basically adequate two star read, and not all that special and spectacular by any and all stretches of my imagination).

However, I really do not find the story part of the presented narrative all that engaging, and really, rather flat and majorly uninspiring (or at least, it feels that way for me and to me). Now Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf is definitely informative and still a worthwhile read for (or with) children interested in trees and ecology (and I do much appreciate the included recipe for the bird treat and have, in fact, made it on occasion for the many downy and pileated woodpeckers on my property).

While I certainly do much enjoy the bright and expressive collage like illustrations of Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf (and especially of the woodpeckers which just happen to also be amongst my favourite bird species), I personally think that it would have been better and more successful for author and illustrator Lois Ehlert to have either penned a non-fiction book about sugar maples (and woodpeckers) or recounted a fictional tree-based narrative, as the combination of fiction/non-fiction in Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf is in my opinion not executed all that well, has not been rendered all that successfully (and actually even tends to feel rather disjointed and uneven, with the fiction part of Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf more suitable for younger children and the non fiction part definitely more suitable for older children, and perhaps even younger teenagers).

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert