I love picture books for children. They are wonderful teaching tools and the opportunity they afford the child and parent to interact is tremendously rewarding to both the child and the adult. When you hold this lovely, large picture book you are immediately captivated by the illustrations reminiscent of an earlier gentler time when the illustrations of children's books were lovely, soft, gentle, and fine tuned. The beautiful watercolor and pen illustrations by Wendy Anderson Halperin are all these. Richly illustrating plants and seeds along side of the lovely critters in the wild.A picture book is about words as well as pictures. The finely crafted text and story line that Kathryn O. Galbraith uses to tell in a simple yet powerful way the wonderful seeding of the world around us in nature by nature. Seeds exploding. Wind blowing seeds. Animals transferring seeds. It is all there. A well-crafted science lesson for the young child just beginning to grasp knowledge of the world around him.A good combination - author Kathryn O. Galbraith and illustrator Wendy Anderson Halperin. It is not a surprise that the book they developed won a Growing Good Kids Book Award and a 2010 Parents' Choice Approved Award. I recommend this book for libraries wherever children hunt for delectable books to read.DISCLOSURE: A complimentary copy of Planting the Wild Garden was provided to me by Peachtree Publishers in exchange for my honest review. No compensation was provided for this review. Opinions expressed are solely my own. Enter the world of a meadow garden, and look carefully around you. You’ll find seeds that planted in so many different ways: scattered, spilled, spun, and swept by the wind; eaten by a flock of goldfinches; washed by the rain to new places; carried elsewhere on foxes’ tails or peoples’ socks and sweaters. Galbraith and Halperin work together seamlessly, showing through poetic words and soft illustrations just how wild plants spread their seeds. Young children will be fascinated by Halperin’s many small sequences that show seeds germinating, plants growing and taking root. She balances these small panels with larger sweeping landscapes, giving readers a sense of the small dramas that take place in the wild meadows. The lyrical text is lovely to read aloud, with plenty of sound effects as the rain and wind whisk seeds away. This is a perfect book to intrigue little gardeners.
What do You think about Planting The Wild Garden (2011)?
I can't rate or review this book yet as I am a judge for the final round of Cybils in NFPB category.
—nareenabo0
This is another children's books with lovely artwork and the kids I babysat enjoyed the story.
—lovelycactus
I love the illustrations, and the bibliography. Prose very nice too.
—heyitsnay810
