My Little Golden Book About Johnny Appleseed, by Lori Haskins Houran, is a wonderful biographical kid's book read aloud for preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school ages (and adults still young at heart), for the Fall/Autumn season.
Parents and teachers, join me here at The Children's Storytime Bookshelf for daily read alouds in the classroom, at bedtime, or anytime!
Follow The Children's Storytime Bookshelf for a classic children's library.
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Parents and teachers, join me here at The Children's Storytime Bookshelf for daily read alouds in the classroom, at bedtime, or anytime!
Follow The Children's Storytime Bookshelf for a classic children's library.
#kidsbooksreadaloud #readaloud #readaloudbooksforchildren
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LearningTranscript
00:00My Little Golden Book about Johnny Appleseed
00:29By Lori Haskins Howren Illustrated by Genevieve Godbout
00:38On a fine September day more than two hundred years ago, a boy named John Chapman was born.
00:45Someday he would be famous, but he would be known by a different name, Johnny Appleseed.
00:55Johnny grew up in Massachusetts in a small, crowded house.
01:03He liked to take long walks in the woods where it was calm and quiet.
01:08He liked to feel the sun on his face and the earth under his bare feet.
01:16When Johnny turned eighteen, he took a very long walk, more than four hundred miles.
01:22He brought along food, supplies, and a sack of apple seeds.
01:26Johnny had an idea.
01:29Settlers were starting to go west in covered wagons, looking for new places to live.
01:34Johnny figured they would want apples to eat and press into cider.
01:38But there were no apples out west.
01:41Even if the settlers planted seeds, it would take years for the trees to sprout and grow
01:46fruit.
01:47Why not give the settlers a head start?
01:53Johnny reached Pennsylvania.
01:56Near a river he found a patch of land with rich soil and plenty of sunlight.
02:01A perfect place for growing apple trees, he planted some seeds.
02:06Then he built a sturdy fence so that when the new seedlings came up, deer and rabbits
02:11wouldn't eat them.
02:13It was his first nursery.
02:19Johnny planted more seeds, thousands of them, across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana.
02:26He worked and he walked, going from nursery to nursery to tend his trees.
02:31Meanwhile, the settlers came.
02:34Sure enough, they wanted apples.
02:36They were happy to pay Johnny a few cents a piece for seedlings.
02:41Sometimes he even gave them away to families who were down on their luck.
02:48People spread the word about Johnny and his apple trees.
02:52That's how he got his nickname.
02:53Have you met Johnny Appleseed?
02:56He's mighty kind, people said.
02:59Mighty peculiar, too.
03:01And it was true.
03:02For one thing, Johnny looked strange.
03:05He wore old, ragged pants.
03:08He cut holes in coffee sacks to make his shirts.
03:11And he still didn't wear shoes.
03:13By now, folks claimed his feet were so tough, a snake's fangs couldn't prick them.
03:20People even swore they saw Johnny wear a tin pot for a hat.
03:27And then, cook his dinner in it.
03:30Johnny's diet was another thing people couldn't get over.
03:34He didn't like to hurt animals, so he wouldn't eat meat.
03:37Not one bite.
03:39He filled up on corn mush, potatoes, and nuts instead.
03:44And when night fell, Johnny liked to sleep outdoors.
03:47He'd settle into a hollow log or stretch out on a pile of leaves.
03:52He didn't seem to worry about the bears and panthers that roamed the woods.
03:56It was almost as if Johnny was a forest creature himself.
04:03Johnny might have been odd, but he was friendly.
04:06He got along with just about everyone he met.
04:09Native Americans shared their trails with him.
04:12They showed him which berries were safe to eat, and how to make medicine from leaves
04:16and roots.
04:21And settlers invited Johnny into their cabins and asked him to tell stories.
04:26Sometimes he read from the Bible.
04:28Good news fresh from heaven, he'd say.
04:31Other times he acted out his own wild adventures.
04:39People retold Johnny's tales, and made up new ones, too.
04:43As the years went by, the tales grew taller and taller.
04:48Did you know Johnny can thaw ice with his bare feet?
04:52He has a tame wolf that follows him around like a puppy.
04:56Once he tricked ten woodsmen into a chopping contest.
05:01They cleared a whole acre of land for a nursery.
05:07The stories wound their way east and west and back again.
05:12So did Johnny.
05:13He traveled hundreds of miles a year, making new nurseries and tending the old ones.
05:18Every so often he rode a horse or paddled a canoe, but most of the time he walked.
05:24And walked.
05:25And walked.
05:26He kept this up for nearly 50 years.
05:31One day, when he was 70 years old, Johnny walked through a snowstorm to fix a fence
05:36around some of his trees.
05:39Afterward, he fell ill and died.
05:45Johnny was sorely missed.
05:47But he was not forgotten, and neither was his great idea.
05:51As settlers moved farther and farther west, they carried along apple seeds just the way
05:56Johnny had.
05:57They planted apple trees of their own.
06:03And today, apples grow in every state in America.
06:10I hope you enjoyed that story.
06:12If you would like to see these books uploaded daily, go ahead and subscribe, and don't forget
06:17to check out all the other stories that are already uploaded.
06:20Thank you so much for watching.