“underGROUND,” by Denise Fleming; Beach Lane Books, $17.99, 40 pages,
ages 3-5.

Two weeks into the first full month of fall we celebrate the harvests of the season and the changing multicolor landscape as the forests prepare for winter. Here, we peek at burrowing critters that call the forest home in this wonderfully earthy picture book by Denise Fleming. The boldly pigmented illustrations were created by a papermaking process known as pulp painting, where the artist pours colored cotton fibers through stencils, giving the turtles, squirrels, moles and salamanders an organic appearance. Close-up examination of these creatures (often hiding in plain sight) invites young readers to explore their backyards.

Slippery garter snakes, slow box turtles and wily foxes are all diggers of some sort, and the rhyming text flows with their tunnels that travel across the pages. The “creature identification” glossary details the animals’ burrowing habits in greater detail. (Many newly published non-fiction books for young readers have well-written glossaries geared to older readers and adults. This is fantastic for both parents and the eager budding scientist.) Twenty-one animals appear in this glossary and their digging habits documented concisely.