I love maple syrup. I love the flavor and dainty richness. I love the history and traditions. I love the smell of the sap boiling as you enter the sugar house. I love seeing the steam rising from the roof letting everyone know that maple syrup season has begun. I love trying a warm sample fresh from the evaporator. I love every maple based product and enjoy coming up with new things to pair my maple syrup with. With so much to love about maple syrup it made it an easy choice to teach my children about.
The books we read covered a wide range of maple syrup and sugaring related topics, ranging from its production to the history to how people enjoy it. Below are the books recommended for this topic, along with a quick review of each to help you decide if it would work for your children.
If you are looking for ideas on activities to include in this unit, please click here.
Books To Read About Maple Syrup:
Sugarbush Spring by Marsha Wilson Chall and illustrated by Jim Daly
A young girl joins her family to make maple syrup in this book. It covers a lot of different tasks that must be done in order to get maple syrup (from hanging buckets, to cleaning jars for the syrup, to boiling the sap). The characters in this book even use a horse drawn sleigh to collect the buckets. The illustrations in this book are great and very life like, they give the children listening a lot to look at and are quite well done. My 4 year old really enjoyed this book.
Sap to Syrup by Inez Snyder
This is a very simple book that covers the basics of how maple syrup is made. It was a very short book, but it does discuss the process in a very easy way for children to follow. Recommended for a good way to learn the process and introduce it to children before reading some of the more detailed books.
Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast by Josh Funk
This book tells the story of two friends Sir French Toast and Lady Pancake who race through the refrigerator to get to the last drop of syrup. The story uses rhyming text to tell the story. My girls enjoyed following them on their race and really liked the last page that folds out to show the entire refrigerator where you can recreate their journey. The book ends with them losing out on the drop of syrup to Barron Van Waffle but deciding that they are friends and they should share some butter. Good story to add some fiction to a maple syrup unit.
If You Give A Pig A Pancake by Laura Numeroff
Following the same idea of “If you give a mouse a cookie”, this book follows what would happen if you give a pig a pancake. It begins with that she’ll want some maple syrup, but gets sticky and so on. The book ends with her feeling sticky which reminds her of the maple syrup, which she asks for and then wants a pancake to go with it. Cute story that my girls both enjoyed and it touched on maple syrup so we included it in this unit as a way to break up some of the more serious stories we were reading.
Anytime Mapleson and the Hungry Bears by Mordicai Gerstein
The Maplesons are named Dinnertime, Lunchtime, Breakfasttime, and Anytime based on when they enjoy eating their pancakes. Anytime ventures out to check the sap buckets and finds 3 bears (at different times). In a play on his family names (based on him believing the bears to be saying you look like breakfast, lunch, or dinner), he ends up inviting the bears back home for pancakes and dresses them in his clothes to hide them from his family. This was a silly book but my girls seemed to enjoy the story. They were a bit confused by the family names, but it didn’t bug them too much. This book does show the basics of maple syrup production in the pictures and briefly in the text.
From Maple Tree to Syrup by Melanie Mitchell
This book covers the basics of maple syrup production, going into a bit more depth then some of the other non-fiction books. It was easy to follow along and the pictures were nice and clear.
Sugaring by Jessie Haas, illustrated by Jos. A. Smith
A young girl works with her grandfather to make maple syrup in this book. The story takes us through each of the steps of maple syrup production in a story format (even including the grandmother making maple sugar candy). It was a cute story that worked in the details of making maple syrup and for that reason I’d recommend it.
The Missing Maple Syrup Sap Mystery or How Maple Syrup is Made by Gail Gibbons
Written as a chapter book, this story follows Mr. & Mrs. Mapleworth as they go out to begin the maple syrup production process. In the first chapter they hang their buckets and the sap starts to drop but the following day the sap is missing. The second chapter shows them sleeping outside near their trees to try to find out who is stealing the sap. By chapter 3 we have learned who has been stealing the sap and the Mapleworths collect their sap and boil it into maple syrup. In the 4th chapter they have a party eating pancakes and sugar on snow. Despite having chapters this book was fairly short and easy to read in one setting. My 4 year old remained engaged throughout the entire story. The pictures gave listeners a lot to look at and hints as to who was stealing the sap.
Taffy Time by Jennifer Lloyd
A little girl wants to help her family make maple syrup but ends up making mistakes and causing issues along the way. She ventures off while looking for twigs for the fire. Her dad finds her and discovers a way she can help out. The maple syrup process is woven into the story so children are learning along the way.
Sugar Snow adapted from the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Based on the Little House book by Laura Ingalls Wilder this book tells the story of Pa coming home and giving the girls maple syrup and sugar and telling them of his day at Grandpa’s making maple syrup. It briefly touches on the production process. It also explains that sugar snow is the snow that falls in the spring that helps trees produce more sap. I love the Little House stories and was excited to introduce the stories to my girls. This was a simple book, but I would add it to your unit. It also shows how the process is still very similar to how it was done a long time ago.
At Grandpa’s Sugar Bush by Margaret Carney and Janet Wilson
This book gives factual information in a story of a child who is helping his grandfather make maple syrup. The story is short enough and simple enough that younger children can follow along.
Curious George Makes Maple Syrup Adaptation by C.A. Krones
Based on the television series episode, this book follows the same story line as the TV episode telling of how George learns to make maple syrup. It is a good story for children, especially those that love Curious George. It covers the basics of maple syrup production and is a good “easy” book for introducing this topic.
Maple Syrup Season by Ann Purmell
This maple syrup book focuses on an entire family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins) coming together to do all the work it takes to make maple syrup. This was a great story for my young girls who both followed along with the story and it held their interest. The pictures were detailed enough that there was a lot of things to look at as the story was read to them. This book really emphasizes the teamwork aspect of making maple syrup while also giving the basics of how it is made. We all enjoyed this one.
Sugar on Snow by Nan Parson Rossiter
This was a nice book about making maple syrup. It focused a lot on being old enough to help more. It was a bit more lengthy/wordy then the other books, but if your children will sit though slightly longer stories this was a nice addition about working together and being given more responsibility once you are older. It also has a page at the end that gives the legend of how maple syrup was discovered.
Maple Moon by Connie Brummel Crook and Scott Cameron
This was a very long story (too long for my girls on the day we read it). It tells of a young Missisauga boy who is lame (and picked on by other children) who discovers that maple syrup sap is sweet while watching a squirrel drink from a maple tree. His mother uses it as water while cooking and finds that the meat she is cooking has a very sweet taste. This story has aspects of more popular legends of the origin of maple syrup, but in essence is a creation of the author’s imagination (which is addressed on the last page in the “Author’s Historical Note”). It is a good book for talking about legends and the possible origins of maple syrup or to make a side note about picking on people. If your children will sit through longer stories I think this would be a nice addition.
The Sugaring-Off Party by Jonathan London
This was another fairly long book for my children (ages 2 & 4) to sit through. It begins with a young boy asking his grandmother to recount her first time helping to make maple syrup. It is based in Canada “not far from Montreal” so the book includes French words and phrases. It does not focus too much on the collection of the sap or the boiling of sap more on a big party centered around the maple syrup production. The illustrations have a lot of details to examine, so if you have children who enjoy longer stories (or older children) who will sit through a slightly longer book then this one would be good to read.
Cold Snap by Eileen Spinelli
This book follows the residents of Toby Mills as a deep cold snap hits town. They end up gathering around a large bonfire and making sugar on snow. Cute message about coming together to make the best of a tough situation.
Syrup (How is it Made?) by R.J. Bailey
A great non-fiction book that takes the reader step by step through the the process of making maple syrup from sap. The photographs used really add to the text in showing the steps. The book also adds facts about maple syrup throughout the book and includes instructions for making “Syrup Snow Candy” or as I prefer to call it “Sugar on Snow”.
Sugar White Snow and Evergreens by Felicia Sanzari Chernesky, illustrated by Susan Swan
A special emphasis is put on all the colors encountered on a trip to the sugar shack to get some maple syrup. Whether it be the orange carrot nose or the pink cheeks, the family in this story discovers many different colors while also giving a very basic overview of how maple syrup is made. A great book for engaging children in naming the color while also learning about syrup.
Maple Syrup from the Sugarhouse by Laurie Lazzaro Knowlton, illustrations by Kathryn Mitter
An extended family comes together to make maple syrup. They all work together to tap the trees, collect the sap, and boil it down to be maple syrup. This was a great book that gives a more detailed look at the maple syrup making process but woven into a story so it holds the attention of young children. The illustrations were detailed with a lot of things to examine and discuss.
Buster’s Sugartime by Marc Brown
In this book from the “Postcards from Buster” series we see Buster travel to Vermont during the early spring where he participates in some activities with the local children including making maple syrup. The book is written such that there is some text of the story, followed by a postcard from Buster to one of his friends back home telling them something about the trip. The book uses both cartoon images and real photographs to tell the story. While this book does discuss maple syrup production, it does not give much information. It does cover a couple of other activities (mud season and bonfires) . This book would be a great addition if you have an “Arthur” fan. I personally could not get past the fact that Buster’s father, who is a rabbit, looks like a human but with bunny ears on his head. My children however did not comment on it at all. Also, I want to point out that this book mentions visiting one of the friend’s moms. Since this is something I know people like to know about from either the point of view of avoiding them or seeking them out for their children I decided to mention it so you can decide for yourself.
Sugaring Time by Kathryn Lasky, photographs by Christopher G. Knight
A Newbury Honor Book from 1984, this book is full of great information and images that take you through the sugaring process. It is geared toward slightly older children, however, with its combination of story line and facts it may hold the attention of your 4 or 5 year old. The black and white photographs used to illustrate the book add to both the story line and overall feeling of what it would be like to be there with the family sugaring.
The Maple Syrup Book by Marilyn Linton
A longer book that is full of information, it not ideal for reading aloud to preschoolers, it does however include a bunch of recipes for unique things to make with maple syrup. If you are planning on including a cooking unit with this theme then I would recommend checking out this book to get some ideas for fun maple flavored foods to try (please note that the recipes are metric). This book also includes a great section highlighting the use of piping to collect maple sap instead of buckets. This book does a great job of explaining the sugaring process and would be a great resource for older children.
Sugaring Season Making Maple Syrup by Diane Burns
A lengthy and in depth look at the maple syrup making process. I would not recommend this book for young children, but if you have an older child that will sit through it this book has a lot of good information. This book also highlights the modern method of using plastic tubing to collect sap that you may see if you visit a sugar house.
