“Fall is a great time to go outdoors and see squirrels running around gathering nuts, hear the bluejays and crows calling, Canada geese honking, see the leaves turning vivid orange and yellow and red,” says Kari Percival, Boston-area author and artist of the new children’s book, “Fall Day, All Day.” “It’s time to harvest squash and Brussels sprouts and pumpkins from the garden, find mushrooms and raspberries and seeds, rose hips and milkweed seeds, acorns. It’s time to go apple picking. Feeling the wind, hearing the wind in the trees. Seeing all the animals and plants changing and getting ready for winter.”
Published at the end of August by Rise x Penguin Workshop, “Fall Day, All Day” has already earned starred reviews from Publishers Weekly (“superb”) and Kirkus, which wrote: “Percival draws clear, enticing parallels between the seasonal preparations made by humans and those involving the natural world. . . The vibes couldn’t be cozier, and the science shines.”
Kari be giving free readings the book at Molly’s Bookstore in Melrose on Saturday, Aug. 29, at 10:30 a.m. and at Bookends in Winchester on Saturday, Sept. 5, and 11 a.m. (Full list of readings below.)
Kari also happens to be married to me. We met in a woodcut and linocut class when we were studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kari grew up exploring the woods of Boston’s North Shore and Mid-Coast Maine. She transferred to Chicago from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she’d been involved in ecology and theater and painting. At Chicago, she was busy with scientific nature drawing in the Field Museum and the Lincoln Park Zoo, performance art, woodcuts, painting. She arranged lighting and sound for performances at the alternative art space Randolph Street Gallery and for the giant community spectacle troupe Redmoon Theater.
After art school, we moved to the Boston area to return to Kari’s family. Kari formed the Earthworm Pie Puppet Theater that performed original puppet stories around Boston’s North Shore and at Somerville’s ArtBeat festival. She pursued graduate studies in environmental education at Antioch University in Keene, New Hampshire. She taught middle school science and theater. She apprenticed with the Bread and Puppet Theater at their farm in northern Vermont, forming a friendship with the giant spectacle troupe that continues to today. She illustrated posters and T-shirts for the Charles River Watershed Association, Mystic River Watershed Association, the City of Somerville’s Sustainaville, Extinction Rebellion, 350.org and other environmental groups.
We had babies.
Years back, when Kari was nearing adulthood, she dreamed of making children’s books. After having kids, she began to purse it—taking workshops, going to children’s book conferences, finding an agent. Her first book, “How To Say Hello To A Worm,” inspired by a community gardening program she founded for toddlers and their families, and filled with digital illustrations evoking woodcuts, was published by Rise x Penguin Workshop in 2022. The book received a starred review from Publishers Weekly: “In this deceptively simple, sparkling debut, Percival conveys the joy children can feel in working together, being outdoors, and eating food they’ve grown themselves—all with a fizzy immediacy.” It became a Blue Ribbon Selection for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library literacy program.
“Safe Crossing,” her children’s book about protecting frogs and salamanders on their annual spring mating migration, was published by Chronicle Books in 2025. Kirkus: “Percival chronicles this process in unadorned prose through the eyes of one multiracial family, who not only volunteer, but also advocate for the creation of a wildlife tunnel to allow the creatures safe passage beneath the road. … The illustrations, rendered digitally but in the style of woodcut prints, are spectacular.” “Safe Crossing” was named one of the best books of the year by the New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Kirkus, Book Page, Pen America, and statewide librarian reading lists: Texas Bluebonnet Award Nominee, Washington, Maine, Missouri, Delaware.
Kari says her new book, “Fall Day, All Day,” “celebrates playing and learning outdoors in autumn.” Children head out to find chickadees, cottontail rabbits, staghorn sumacs, wooly bear caterpillars, chipmunks with their mouths full of acorns to store away for winter. The children learn about hibernation. They harvest potatoes and beets and pumpkins. They watch ducks flying south for the winter. They catch falling leaves and dance like maple trees bending in the breeze. Publishers Weekly says, “Reminiscent of a field guide, Percival’s sprightly account features jaunty prose and texturized digital woodcut prints that invite readers to reflect on autumnal transformations. … Part manual, part appreciation, this superb science-led portrait succeeds at highlighting key seasonal adaptations and species.”
Free Readings:
Saturday, Aug. 29 Melrose, Molly’s Bookstore, 10:30 a.m.
Saturday, Sept. 5 Winchester, Bookends, 11 a.m.
Saturday, Sept. 26, Shutesbury Public Library, 10:30 a.m.
Saturday, Sept. 26, Amherst, Eric Carle Museum, 2 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 3, Boston, Roslindale Branch Boston Public Library,
Saturday, Oct. 11, Cambridge, Porter Square Books, 9:30 a.m.
Saturday, Oct. 10, Medford, Moon & Back, 2:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 20, Boston, Beacon Hill Books, 4 p.m.
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