All Around Bustletown: Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring by Rotraut Susanne Berner

I first discovered In the town, all year 'round in 2009. It was a lovely and popular book, frequently replaced. Last fall, I was delighted to see it had been cut into an over-sized board book for each season and looked at the Winter edition. Today, I have a set of all four seasons and enjoin you to add these lovely books to your collection.

I did a detailed comparison of the updates in my review of Winter, so today I'm just introducing the set as a whole. Each book shows the same spreads, but in different seasons. There's a cut-away version of a large house next to a busy street, a farm and auto garage, train station, city street corner with a new school under construction, market square with fountain, picnics, and small shops, cut-away view of a shopping center, and a park with pond. The same people, a nun, an Indian in turban and dhoti (?), dark-skinned and curly-haired mother and child, and a variety of nondescript white people in varying clothes. These and others are shown on the back of the book and their adventures can be followed through the pages and seasons.

One finds the nun, named Martha, buying a penguin balloon that floated through the pages in Summer. In Fall she joins the lantern parade at the new kindergarten with a penguin lantern, and so on. There are people, animals, and seasonal changes to follow, storylines woven into the wordless spreads, and endless, fascinating details.

Verdict: Although one loses a little in not having the complete year all together, the sturdiness of the board book editions makes it worth it. Of course, you may need to purchase multiple copies so people can check out all four at once!

Summer
ISBN: 9783791374208

Fall (to be published July 2020)

ISBN: 9783791374222

Spring

ISBN: 9783791374093

Winter

ISBN: 9783791374154

I received a set of the books for review from Prestel; I've also purchased additional copies (or will purchase when they are released) so I have multiple copies.