If you could grow anything in your garden, what would you grow? In My Garden by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow, 2010), a little girl imagines the gorgeous garden she would grow if she could grow her own garden. In her garden, the flowers would be magical, the weeds would be non-existent, and she’d enjoy tasty chocolate rabbits and jelly beans from her jelly bean tree. Kevin Henkes’ lovely marker-and-watercolor illustrations bring to life the girl’s imaginative garden. I wish I could step right in to enjoy the glowing strawberries and beach-ball sized tomatoes.
My Garden would pair well with an imaginative lesson about gardening or any lesson in the spring time, but the imaginative qualities also make it a lovely picture book for all the time. My favorite line is “the carrots would be invisible because I don’t like carrots.” Use My Garden as a writing prompt for children to write about what they would like in their own garden.
