SPRING'S SPRUNG
written by Lynn Plourde, illustrated by Greg Couch
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2002

Mother Earth rouses her daughters—
March, April, and May.
"You must wake the world
to start a new day."
The Spring sisters groan,
don't even budge,
till Mother Earth asks,
"Do you each need a nudge?"
"No," "No," "No,"
they say so quick.
"We'll all be dressed
in a flickety-flick."

About the Book

But after the Spring sisters are dressed, they want Mother Earth to proclaim each of them the "fastest dresser." Instead she sends them off to practice their spring songs—March howls and growls, April tinkles and sprinkles, and May serenades all with a soprano trill. Each girl begs Mother Earth to declare her the "best singer." But when Mother Earth won't claim one daughter as her favorite singer, the sisters squabble over which of them Mother loves the best. Mother Earth cuddles her girls together and tells them that a mother's heart can grow and stretch enough to love them ALL the best. Delighted in their mother's proclamation of love for them, the Spring sisters skip off, arm and arm, to wake up the world from its long winter's nap.

Reviews

Publisher's Weekly . . . Like Plourde and Couch's two previous collaborations (Wild Child and Winter Waits), this lushly illustrated book heralds a change in the seasons, but also demonstrates the universal experience of sibling rivalry. When Mother Earth wakens her daughters, March, April and May, they all vie for their mother's attention each asking if they dressed the fastest. Mother Earth replies judiciously, "You are the fastest March I ever did see. / And the fastest April I ever did see. / And the fastest May I ever did see." Similarly, when each girl sings a spring song, Mother Earth shushes their bickering by telling them, "The truth / I love you ALL the best." The girls delight in their mother's politic answer as they wake up the world and shout for summer to come. Each of their songs reflects the characteristics of that month (March, for instance "howls and growls/ like a monsoon, / then whiffs and puffs/ a quieter tune"). Couch fills his evocative acrylic-and-pencil illustrations with a haze of lavender shadows, infused with soft yellow sunlight and spring green. In one particularly exquisite painting, Mother Earth takes the form of a graceful tree wearing pink blossoms in her hair, reaching out her branch-like fingers to awaken the sleeping children.

School Library Journal . . ."Spring's Sprung! A new day's begun." As with Wild Child (1999) and Winter Waits (2001, both S & S), Plourde and Couch evoke a whimsical impression of the season. Using washes of liquid acrylic paint with details done in colored pencils, the illustrations glow with an ethereal light that beautifully matches the mood of the text.

Kirkus . . . The spring season gets a treatment of its own, following autumn (Wild Child, 1999) and winter (Winter Waits, 2001) from the same author/illustrator team . . . the tone is lighthearted and fresh, appropriate to its season. Illustrations, as in the previous books, are liquid acrylic and colored pencil on museum board. Mother Earth's form emerges from the earth's topography while the daughters are portrayed as free-standing girls with many visual allusions to their physical ties to the earth, such as hair that flows into a river or curls into mounds of bushes. The colors are pastel, and there is much that is a fresh, new green. Touches of flowers and familiar mother-and-baby animals (such as bunnies and ducks) dot the backgrounds. There is a distinct New Age flavor to both story and illustrations. The large, vertical format is equally suitable for storytime or individual readings.

Midwest Book Review . . . Lynn Plourde's Spring's Sprung is an engaging, fanciful story about the three daughters of Mother Earth, March, April, and May, who are responsible for bringing springtime to the world. But after a long winter's sleep the three begin quarreling and forget their duty - will spring ever arrive? The warm and gentle illustrations by Greg Couch fill every two-page spread with generous color and life, in this enchanting and enthusiastically recommended picturebook fable for beginning readers.

Honors

Children's Book of the Month Club Selection, 2002

Learning Activities

· Write your own story of sibling rivalry. All brothers and sisters fight with each other—that's NORMAL! What makes sibling rivalry unique are the details of the squabbles: what siblings fight about, how they fight, how they make up, etc. You might write about an incident you've had or you might interview a parent or grandparent and write about a case of sibling rivalry they experienced (Hint: Prepare your interview questions ahead of time—such as "Did you fight with your brothers and sisters growing up? What did you fight about? How did you solve the fights? Tell me about one "fight" that stands out in your mind.).

· Notice Greg Couch's design page at the beginning of Spring's Sprung. This opening page sets the mood for the story. Why do you think Greg Couch chose the colors that he used? Why do you think he chose flower petals for the small object that repeats across the page? DON'T look now, but Greg Couch also created similar design pages for our other season books: Wild Child, Winter Waits, and Summer's Vacation (2003). What do you think would be good colors and small objects to include on the fall, winter, and summer books' design pages? Maybe you could draw a picture of a design for each season. Then look in the other books and see what Greg Couch actually used for colors and objects. Did they surprise you? Why or why not?

· Spring is considered a time of birth (awakening) for the earth and the animals. See the animals—deer, sheep, rabbits—that Greg Couch included in Spring's Sprung. What are baby deer called? Baby sheep? Baby rabbits? Research animals and make a list of what are the special names for different baby animals (such as, calf is a baby cow, kid is a baby goat). Some you may already know. Others will be unusual and may surprise you. Make your list as long as possible.

· Each of the sisters in Spring's Sprung is true to the characteristics of her own special month. That is, March has hair that looks like the wind blowing; and when she sings, at first, she howls and growls which later changes to whiffs and puffs (sort of like the idea for the phrase "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb."). What do you notice about the other two sisters, April and May? How do the words and illustrations match the characteristics of their months? What about other months? What if you tried to write about or do a drawing for the month of October or July or January? How would each month look, sing, dress, act?

Story Behind the Story

After I wrote Wild Child and Winter Waits, I knew that I would have to write two more seasonal books—one for spring and one for summer. It was important to me that each book be unique in its own way even though they were all part of the same seasonal series. Making each different was the challenge. I heard from my agent (an agent is a person who sells an author's stories to publishing companies) that Simon & Schuster was going to offer me a book contract (a contract is a promise to publish a book) for two additional books, the spring and summer ones—which made me nervous. I had never signed a contract for a picture book before that I would write in the FUTURE. Previously, I had written picture book stories and then publishers would give me contracts for the stories that I'd already finished writing. Sure, I'd have to go back and make revisions and changes on those stories even after the contract was signed, but the basic story was already there. For the spring and summer books, I had NO stories written. I didn't even know what they would be about. I only knew that I wanted them to be different from the first two books. I didn't want the pressure of signing a contract for UNwritten books, and so during a weeklong school vacation I sat down and wrote both the spring and summer books. I knew they'd need changes, but at least the basic stories were finished—whew! And you'll notice the way I made the spring book different from the previous two was to give it three kids (March, April, and May) in the story. And the way I made the summer book different was to . . . (oops, that book doesn't come out until May 2003, you'll just have to wait and see how I made that one different then =).

Lynn Plourde & Greg Couch on Spring's Sprung tour to Midwest in March 2002

The publication of Spring's Sprung was particularly exciting for me because the publisher, Simon & Schuster, sent me and Greg Couch, the illustrator, on a book tour to the Midwest (Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit). A book tour—that was a first! I'm a small-town Maine girl, and I was thrilled to be sharing this book with people from another part of the country. And best of all, I had a chance to spend some time with Greg Couch (Most people are surprised to learn that the author and illustrator of a picture book do not work together; and usually do not communicate while their book is in the works.) I had met Greg only once before for two hours at a fair in Springfield, Massachusetts, when we autographed copies of our first book, Wild Child, together. I drove from Maine and he drove from New York that time. But the spring book tour was our first chance to spend an extended time together. I enjoyed chatting about "our" books (after all, it feels like we're the parents of the books we create, except parents who never spend any time together), learning how he creates his illustrations, and seeing a sneak preview of his illustrations for the final summer book (Summer's Vacation, 2003). I admire Greg's illustrations so much. He has a unique style, his personifications of the characters are rich and detailed, plus his colors seem to drip off the pages (the soft pinks, purples, greens, and blues in Spring's Sprung are gorgeous—nothing like the browns we see here in Maine springs, also called "mud season!").

Michael, Lynn, Cathy, and Stephen Plourde one Easter morning in the early 1960's

Spring's Sprung is dedicated to my sister and two brothers. Growing up in Skowhegan, Maine, in a family with four children, we squabbled lots (although it was never my fault =). My sister Cathy was a year-and-a-half older than me, Michael was a year-and-a-half younger than me, and then Stephen (the baby) was four years younger than me. We'd help stock shelves together at our dad's grocery store, race each other around the yard with go-carts, go swimming and fishing at the camp we rented every summer, go on lots of rides at the Skowhegan Fair every summer—all memories I still cherish.