Review by Booklist Review
From educational opportunities to building community and friendships, this picture book introduces the rewards of school gardens primarily through a series of first-person, free verse-style poems. Michael ( New city, new school, / No friends, and all alone ) forms relationships as he learns about and participates in gardening projects throughout the year. This includes planting; Harvest Day! ; and how gardening connects to school curricula. Accompanying side information ranges from seed-sowing tips to explaining compost to contributing to food banks. Hale's charming, richly hued, textured illustrations depict multicultural characters and a variety of garden-related activities. Occasional elements presume some prior knowledge for instance, Found Poem doesn't explain the concept of a found poem. Also, while the poems and text address young readers throughout, the concluding author's note speaks to adults, then segues to you, your parents, and your teachers, and finally concludes with annotated resources geared towards educators and parents. Nonetheless, Swann's enthusiasm and advocacy will pique kids' interest and engage them, as will Michael's experiences, in this informative, enjoyable approach to the subject.--Rosenfeld, Shelle Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-4-In this picture book, the arrival of a new boy sets the scene for acquainting children with the idea of a school garden. The narrative includes facts, poems, a word study, riddles, and even a recipe for stone soup. Themes of independence, cooperation, and community shine through the parallel telling of a story and of scientific details about gardening, including a brief history of victory gardens. Other topics include harvest celebrations, compost, seeds, and "companion planting." The final pages offer additional resources for starting and maintaining a school or community garden. Though this may not be a book to read aloud cover to cover, it is suitable for independent reading or rich conversation centered around the text and mixed-media collage illustrations. This may be best described as the stone soup of books about school gardening.-Lindsay Persohn, University of South Florida, Tampa (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
