Grandpa's Garden

by Stella Fry, Sheila Moxley (Illustrator)

Overview

“Grandpa’s Garden is inspirational and informative — you shouldn’t be surprised if even the youngest of readers are ready to start planting after reading this delightful story” – New York Botanical Garden

Dig, plant, water, grow! Follow Billy and his grandpa from spring to autumn as they team up to turn a patch of earth into a thriving vegetable garden. From sowing seeds to fending off slugs to harvesting a rainbow of fruits and veggies, this sweet story captures the magic of growing your own food – and the joy of doing it together. 
 

• Warm illustrations and poetic language make for a calming, heartwarming story 
• Includes kid-friendly tips for year round gardening

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781846868092
Publisher:	Barefoot Books
Publication date:	03/01/2012
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.30(d)
Lexile:	660L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Stella Fry is a writer and primary school teacher. She lives in Kent, UK with her partner and two children.

Sheila Moxley is an illustrator who trained at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. She has painted many children' books and is also known for her greeting cards. She recently moved from London to Cornwall, England with her partner, two children and cat.

Editorial Reviews

Grandpa’s Garden is inspirational and informative — you shouldn’t be surprised if even the youngest of readers are ready to start planting after reading this delightful story” – New York Botanical Garden

“A beautifully written text is paired with warm paintings to give children a memorable picture of a garden year” — Through The Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews

From the Publisher

K-Gr 2—This story follows the growth and tending of a garden throughout the seasons. While the theme is fairly standard, the book stands out because of its use of colorful language: "The days are still short and the light is sharp like lemon juice." In early spring, Billy and his grandfather prepare the ground; when the days are warmer, they plant their vegetables, and wait. Finally, they enjoy a healthy harvest, and then, "August is sending the soil to sleep…but spring will follow." Ultimately, the message is that gardening takes patience. The book concludes with tips for planning a vegetable patch and instructions for what to do in each season. The vibrantly colored spreads show Grandpa and Billy working through each stage of their preparations and enjoying their work and being together. The cutaway scenes that show what is beneath the garden surface are particularly charming. Pair this with Judith Caseley's Grandpa's Garden Lunch (Greenwillow, 1990) for a garden-themed storytime.—Jasmine L. Precopio, Fox Chapel Area School District, Pittsburgh, PA

School Library Journal

A two-part home-garden manual for British and like climes, with a thin fictive overlay on the first half. Young Billy recounts the pleasures of working with his grandpa in a "vegetable patch at the garden's end" from late winter through fall. His gee-whiz narration often waxes pedantic: "I spy slimy slugs and snails. Caterpillars too! And I see aphids and blackflies, feasting on young, frail leaves." Once the patch is put to sleep, Fry drops the perfunctory plot completely and goes on to recap, season by season, general gardening agendas for adults and for children on facing pages. In Moxley's similarly stiff art, generic figures with, generally, fixed expressions pose amid sharply regimented rows of growing but thinly planted veggies. (Despite several references to flowers there are none to be seen, except for a spindly row of daffodils.) Aside from not using mulch, Grandpa gardens organically. Readers may well find themselves confused. Not only does the garden in the first part not match the suggested plan in the second, the author mentions crops that Grandpa doesn't happen to grow, like raspberries and sweetcorn. Furthermore, the instructions to plant broad beans in the fall (only possible where winters are mild, and for a fall crop, which she doesn't mention) and to check for hedgehogs before lighting bonfires aren't the only ones not suitable for most North American gardens. The strain of trying to cover too much territory shows in this patchwork import. (Instructional picture book. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews