Review by New York Times Review
Even down to the endpapers (silvery outlines of sunflowers against blue), Henkes's new book is a luminous wonder. A girl, her mother's helper in a flourishing garden, imagines what her own garden would look like: "The flowers could change color just by my thinking about it. . . . The rabbits wouldn't eat the lettuce because the rabbits would be chocolate, and I would eat them." The imagery suggests the powers of the imagination, but it should also spur children to get outside among the flower beds.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [April 11, 2010]
Review by Booklist Review
A young girl's garden grows as big as her imagination in Henkes' latest title that employs what seems to be the elements of his current artistic period: thick outlines; boldly applied, ice-cream parlor colors; and simple declarative sentences. After describing how she helps her mother water and weed, a young girl imagines her own silly and sweet garden filled with eternal flowers that can change color and pattern, chocolate rabbits, seashells that grow new seashells, and a giant jelly-bean bush. (No carrots, though yuck!) The story's shift back to the real world is visually and textually subtle and possible to miss, but kids are sure to forget any confusion amid the giggles and dreams the story inspires. While this botanical fantasy may end with a contented sigh instead of an impressed wow, it is still an enjoyable tour of an imaginary place and will plant creativity and satisfaction in young minds.--Medlar, Andrew Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Spring colors of lilac, daffodil yellow, pale blue, and leafy green bloom in Caldecott Medalist Henkes's fanciful account of the great outdoors. "My mother has a garden. I'm her helper," explains a girl, who wears a petunia-pink dress and a golden straw hat. She dutifully waters and weeds, "but if I had a garden," she says, things would be less predictable. Gazing up at sunflowers, she giggles to imagine them colored in dots and plaids. She picks a flower and, in her perfect garden, another pops right up. Seashells and jelly beans sprout, disliked vegetables are invisible, and pests are not a problem: "the rabbits would be chocolate and I would eat them." At this, the girl nibbles a bunny, surrounded by cocoa rabbits wearing telltale ribbons. Henkes gives the young storyteller a matter-of-fact voice and a sly sense of humor, while dewy watercolors and ink picture her reveling in a magical world of plants, birds, and butterflies. Even as the story elevates the wonders of nature into the realm of the fanciful, it reminds readers to appreciate everyday flowers and soil. Ages 2-7. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Based on the charming book by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow, 2010), this is a delightful introduction to gardens. The young girl in the story helps with the family garden, which involves a lot of work for what she sometimes considers to be questionable results. (She does NOT like carrots.) Yet, as she works her imagination takes flight, and the garden she dreams of grows seashells, flowers that change colors, things that glow in the dark, and crops that would render you speechless with their size. The story circles back to reality, with a touch of whimsy thrown in, as no one truly wants to abandon their dreams-and-well, what if.? Henkes's vivid and child-friendly illustrations are charmingly animated for this presentation as Cassandra Morris reads the story in a young voice that captures its mood perfectly. A read-along option is provided. This exceptional program will tie in naturally with plant and garden units, and serve as a seed for growing interesting creative writing assignments.-Teresa Bateman, Brigadoon Elementary, Federal Way, WA (c) Copyright 2013. 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.
Review by Horn Book Review
A little girl helps her mother in the garden, watering, weeding, chasing away the rabbits: "It's hard work, and my mother's garden is very nice, but if I had a garden..." What follows is a fine description of a garden any child would love. Many aspects would appeal to adults, too: there are no weeds, the flowers grow back as soon as they're picked, and the air hums with bird and butterfly wings. But other details display the author's keen understanding of what's really on kids' minds come spring: the bunnies in this garden are chocolate, there for the eating; planting jellybeans yields a jellybean bush -- in the illustration, the girl busily harvests the beans, her candy-filled straw hat like an Easter basket of tiny colorful eggs. Henkes goes beyond kids' love of sweets, though, perceptively conveying the strange appeal and mystery that ordinary objects can hold: "Sometimes in my garden, good, unusual things would just pop up -- buttons and umbrellas and rusty old keys." The black-outlined pastel-colored art is as playful as the text; one picture calls to mind both early Sendak (the girl's mouth round with song, her eyes closed) and Crockett Johnson (Carrot Seed-like, a huge vegetable fills a wheelbarrow; here the vegetable is a tomato, though, "because I don't like carrots"). With its adroit look at a child's colorful imagination, My Garden is as fresh and inviting as spring after winter. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A little girl enjoys helping her mother in her garden, but she knows if she had a garden, it would be something else entirely: no weeds, ever-blooming multicolored flowers with hues she can change with just a thought, chocolate rabbits instead of pests and so on. "If I planted seashells, I'd grow seashells. / ... / Sometimes in my garden, good, unusual things would just pop upbuttons, and umbrellas and rusty old keys." With a neat, square trim and sunny, pastel palette, this intimate exploration of a child's burgeoning imagination hits every note right. Sketching his outlines with broad, blue ink strokes, Henkes modulates his watercolors beautifully from bright daylight to dreamy firefly-light. Before going in for bed, she plants a seashelland the artist validates every child's imagination with his final image. Just plain perfect. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
