Spring has sprung! Are you looking for a fun, rewarding activity that the whole family can enjoy during this beautiful season? How about gardening? Cultivate food, flowers, and family memories all at once! Check out these books about gardening and visit one of EBRPL’s Seed Libraries to get started. Time to get growing!
YOUTH
This board book might bug you…but in the best way!
Hello, Garden Bugs by Julissa Mora
Babies and families will adore saying hello to a variety of adorable garden bugs in this sweet and simple springtime board book. With high-contrast pictures perfect for newborns and the tiniest readers, and cute individual welcomes for each insect, this garden board book is certain to crawl right up the favorites list!
These picture books may just inspire your little ones to plant some seeds and see what grows!
The Prickletrims Go Wild by Marie Dorléans
The Prickletrim family’s passion for exact measurements, rule following, and straight lines in their garden (and life) is challenged when their gardener quits and the garden explodes with life and wildness! How will they manage with giant plants growing through their kitchen and squirrels rampaging up the stairs? Readers will love the contrast of the gloriously vivid wild garden with the geometric black and white exactitude of the family!
Mara Plants a Seed by Robert Furrow
When Mara planted a sunflower seed, she didn’t know it was the beginning of a transformation of the abandoned lot in her neighborhood! From those first few sunflower seeds to a tiny trio of toddlers adding watermelon seeds from their picnic, to her elderly neighbor watering the grown flowers with the leftover water from her fish tank, this book is a delightful illustration of how small actions can help beautiful things grow!
Kids will find garden adventures galore in these exciting graphic novels!
The Secret Garden on 81st Street by Ivy Noelle Weir
Sneak into the Secret Garden with Mary Lennox and her friends in this modern graphic novel adaptation of the classic novel! Used to traveling with her tech-nomad parents, Mary hasn’t had a traditional life or friends. After her parents’ death, she is sent to live with her mysterious uncle in New York City. When she and her cousin discover a mysterious garden on the roof of their townhouse, will reviving it help her find her balance in this new situation?
The Flower Garden by Renée Kurilla
What would you do if you were suddenly as small as a bug? Best friends Anna and Tess are zapped down to tiny size after planting some seeds in their garden! With a charming gnome named May, they adventure through the garden, climbing flowers, bouncing on mushrooms, and even flying on birds! However, as the day wanes they face a serious choice: Will they stay small or figure out how to work together to get home?
Growing food isn’t hard when you have help from these non-fiction titles!
Growing Green: A First Book of Gardening by Walker Books, Ltd.
From strawberries in an old boot to starting corn in a cardboard tube, this fun illustrated how-to guide features 15 fabulous ideas for families to do with the very youngest gardeners! The directions are clearly worded and well-illustrated for pre-readers. Each project also features a list of supplies and a cute graphic showing the best seasons for the project, how long until harvest, and whether it’s an indoor or outdoor project!
From Plant to Plate by Darryl Gadzekpo and Ella Phillips
This fascinating non-fiction book is half gardening book and half cookbook! With sidetracks into nutrition, plant biology, and history, the fantastic illustrations, charts, and step-by-step guides will keep young readers flipping and browsing this book for hours!
TWEENS AND TEENS
Teens will learn how gardening can bring peace and healing, then perhaps give it a try!
Notes from the Dog by Gary Paulsen
Being 14 isn’t easy for Finn, until lighthearted and imaginative Johanna arrives to house-sit next door. She hires Finn to plant a garden to distract her from her illness, and their unlikely friendship has a profound effect on his outlook.
Summer of June by Jamie Sumner
June is determined to beat anxiety and become the lion she knows she is, instead of a mouse. With the help of her new friend Homer, she starts a garden and hatches a plan to make her dreams come true.
Outdoor School: Gardening—The Definitive Interactive Nature Guide by Bridget Heos
Fully illustrated, highly designed, gorgeous, and interactive, this field guide to gardening includes immersive activities to get you growing, write-in sections to journal about experiences, and next-level adventures to challenge even seasoned gardeners. No experience is required—only curiosity
and courage!
