Not-So-Secret Gardens for Kids

This week kicks off a fun week here at Redeemedreader: Poetry Week.  April is National Poetry Month, after all, and there are some great poetry books out there for kids.  Before we get too lost in reverie, though, I want to use today’s post to finish up a few more gardening book recommendations.

Also, be aware that I’m going to see a screening of The Avengers on Thursday, April 26th.  Will try to drop you guys a line about whether it’s worth letting your teenagers see.

Eyelevelbooks.com

Shanna Gonzalez over at www.eyelevelbooks.com has been reviewing a number of garden books, so I’ve invited her to share some of her favorites:

• Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children:  Just in case gardening with kids isn’t exciting enough all on its own, Sharon Lovejoy takes it to a whole new level.  This attractive, well-organized volume opens with a “top twenty” list of easy, fast-growing plants for kids, and quickly moves on to a smorgasbord of gardening inspiration.  There are eight full-scale themed gardens, the most ambitious of which are play spaces: a clubhouse made entirely from sunflowers, string, and morning glories; a nighttime teepee sown with flowers that bloom only at night; a flower maze; and a “giant’s house” made of colossal vegetables.  There is also a section on container projects for those with less opportunity and/or confidence — a pebble-and-soil filled pot for growing “carrot people,” a metal tub filled with rainbow potatoes, or even an old glove tacked to the wall and planted with nasturtiums.The book’s explicit goal is to help children learn to commune with Mother Nature, and most Christian families won’t share the author’s views.  However, her practical ideas are fantastic, providing the perfect experiential context for discussing what it might have been like for Adam to care for the world’s first garden (Genesis 2:15)….For the rest of this review, go to eyelevelbooks.com.

• Growing Vegetable Soup (Books for Young Readers):  This simple story introduces children to the basic growing cycle of garden vegetables.  It opens with a child narrator stating, “Dad says we’re going to grow vegetable soup.”  The narrator then explains in simple terms how the family goes about cultivating their vegetables, from planting to harvest.  Ehlert illustrates each step with her characteristic collage-style art, more abstract than some of her other work.  This is a great introduction to the joy of gardening, and the fact that this garden is a family project, culminating in a shared meal of soup, gives the story with relational warmth.With its predictable, simple text and visual warmth, this is a great preschooler read-aloud.  It may also be enjoyed by early readers, although they may need help reading the names of vegetables.

Emily’s Picks

A couple more I’ll add to the list:

• Sunflower Houses : Inspiration from the Garden – A Book for Children and Their Grown-Ups:  This book is just the book I want for my craft-crazy daughters.  It includes garden poems (I Meant to Do My Work Today), garden lore, and lots of crafts to make from your garden–including doll dresses made from lilies, and houses made from sunflowers, hence the title.
• I Like Bugs (Step-Into-Reading, Step 1) by Margaret Wise Brown: Technically this isn’t about gardening, but if you have a garden, you’re going to have bugs….and this one, written by the author of Goodnight Moon is as good a beginning reader as you’ll find.
• The Ultimate Step-by-Step Kids’ First Gardening Book: This is the kind of step-by-step intro you can use for years to come.  Lots of pictures and projects you can do with your kids.

Do you guys have any good recommendations?  I love Kevin Henkes’s art, and he has a gardening book worth taking a look at, but no time to include it today.  Any others you guys like?

Also, don’t forget to check out Janie’s post on this topic, How Our Gardens Grow.  Or for more nature-related posts, see our review of the Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins and our interview with James Wanliss on environmentalism.