From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons (Holiday House, 1991) is a detailed Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out book with details on how seeds grow into plants. It includes charts with the parts of the seeds details on how pollination occurs, and clear charts of the various stages of photosynthesis. The detail provides a nice full instruction in how

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Spring Walk by Virginia Brimhall Snow (Grimms Smith, 2019) is a refreshing spring book. The book’s focus is two-fold. First there are light, black-and-white line illustrations and a simply rhyming text. In this, the author-illustrator shows children going for a nature walk in a garden with Grammy. Then, in the foreground on each page is

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With a rhythm and rhyme of just a few syllables per page, Bloom Boom by April Pulley Sayre (Beach Lane Books, 2019) provides not just a simple read-aloud for young children but also a great book of inspiration for finding flowers and other blooming plants that one enjoys. This book of flower photography is a

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We Are the Gardeners by Joanna Gaines and Kids, illustrated by Julianna Swaney (Tommy Nelson 2019) takes a reader step-by-step through the process of building up a family garden by starting small. The four children narrate their process toward creating their beautiful garden, with an emphasis that making a garden requires lots of trying, failing,

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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

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A Flower Is a Friend by Frieda Wishinski, illustrated by Karen Patkau (Pajama Press, May 2023), highlights the ways garden creatures and garden flowers exist together. A digitally rendered flower-and-creature image on each two-page spread nicely pairs with a simple action phrase from the flower’s voice stating what they do, such as “wake to the

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This picture book is non-fiction (or nearly that)! Sometimes the best ways to learn about something are through a fun story. This certainly fills that need. Daisylocks by Marianne Berkes and illustrated by Cathy Morrison (Sylvan Dell, 2014) is a beautifully illustrated book about a daisy seed trying to find a place to grow that is “just

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Tashi’s grandfather Popola is very ill in Tashi and the Tibetan Flower Cure by Naomi C. Rose (Lee and Low, 2011), but after reflecting on her grandfather’s stories of the traditional Tibetan healing power of being out in a garden, Tashi decides to help him get well by surrounding him with flowers, even in the American world they

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