garden-themed picture books

Our back yard garden is flourishing thanks to the careful tending of my beloved and lads.  This brings to mind some of our favorite garden-themed books:

The Gardener, written by Sarah Stewart and awarded a Caldecott medal to illustrator David Small (Stewart's husband), is a visually lovely book to behold.  Set in the Great Depression, young Lydia Grace is sent to live with her uncle and work in his big-city bakery (presumably to make money for her family, as her father has lost his job).  The story of her learning to bake, and by turns endearing herself to the staff of the bakery and teaching them about gardening, unfolds by way of letters she writes back home to her parents and grandmother.   Stewart and Small have collaborated on a number of other equally compelling books, including The Friend and The Journey.

Silvia Long's illustrations for Dianna Hutts Aston's A Seed is Sleepy are simply exquisite.  These two also collaborated on An Egg is Quiet, which is equally captivating.  The poetic text of each book dreamily teaches science, while the illustrations are detailed, delicate, varied, and realistic.  These and the Sarah Stewart/David Small books are among the most beautifully illustrated children's books I've seen.

Eric Carle is one of our favorites (as I've written before). His The Tiny Seed follows a handful of seeds as they float on the wind and land in various places -- some to meet their demise and some to grow into flowering plants that then themselves release seeds and repeat the cycle.  We have many Eric Carle books in our home library; the illustrations are always vibrant and engaging, and the stories appealing to young and old.

We received Mortimer's First Garden by Karma Wilson (illustrated by Dan Andreasen) from my beloved's parents for our younger lad's second birthday.  It's a fun and faith-based story of a little mouse clutching a few sunflower seeds, which he sees as food.  Lamenting all the brown around him, he observes a family planting seeds in the springtime.  Reluctantly, he plants his few seeds, waters them, grows impatient after a few days with nothing to show for his efforts, considers digging up the seeds and eating them, then delights in the new growth he sees sprouting.  Pretty soon he has both something lovely to behold in the sunflowers that bloom from his seeds *and* more sunflower seeds to eat.

The veggie garden has been a daily delight for our family these past few months.  These garden-themed books and others like them keep the wonder alive year-round.