Plant, sow, make & grow Mud-tastic activities for budding gardeners

Gr 1--4--This colorful how-to guide for new gardeners includes step-by-step instructions, art projects, and science experiments. Featuring bright and detailed illustrations, this activity book takes a wide range of gardening topics and divides them into manageable sections. In-depth instructions for planting are separated by seasons, intermingled with art projects and science experiments for kids of all ages. Beyond the how-to steps of gardening basics, each activity highlights scientific learning. Whether Coombs is covering general topics like thinning and companion planting or discussing the importance of bee pollination, the practical and the educational are seamlessly blended. VERDICT This book could make gardeners out of the most dedicated couch potatoes. A valuable addition to every activity book collection.--Savannah Kitchens, Parnell Memorial Library, Montevallo, AL

Propelled by her volunteer work running a garden club at her daughter's school, professional illustrator Coombs presents 38 garden projects organized by season.The activities incorporate garden how-tos for eight types of plants as well as STEAM-oriented DIY projects such as charting plant growth, pressing flowers, and making seed bombs. Emphasizing budget-friendly options, Coombs encourages composting, seed saving, and repurposing plastic jugs as hanging baskets, watering cans, and scoops. Information about water conservation and the importance of fostering habitat for pollinators sharpens the ecological focus. An occasional British reference (e.g. encouraging slug-eating hedgehogs) slips into this import, and two superficial references to Native American gardening practices, incorporated in sidebars, come across as implications that they are quaint relics of a bygone, monolithic culture. With Coombs' illustrated school newsletters as impetus, the text is often directed to adults. Only one project (pumpkin carving) mandates adult participation; others require the cutting of plastic bottles and bins with scissors, a metal skewer, and a drill and hacksaw. Illustrations are whimsical and clear. Coombs' breezy, encouraging advice is often appealingly casual. However, certain specifics potentially mislead: planting pea seeds 12 inches apart (most packets advise closer spacing); suggesting that cherry tomatoes are reliably compact, bush varieties (in fact, many cherry varieties are free-growing, indeterminate types). Cheerfully delivered, this array of projects should inspire adults ready to dig into gardening adventures with kids. (Informational picture book. 5-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.