Fill your space with beauty inside and out! Let these books for all ages inspire and guide your family in decorating, gardening, or just appreciating the place that we love most – home!
Youth
Join some cute animals as they aspire to a perfect garden and a perfect home in these picture books.
Badger’s Perfect Garden by Marsha Diane Arnold
One spring day, Badger is getting ready to plant a garden in front of his tree trunk house. He spent months collecting and sorting various seeds, arranging them in dozens of jars, and is ready to plant them. His friends, Red Squirrel, Weasel, and Dormouse, are eager to help, and they cheerfully follow Badger’s precise directions. When things do not work out the way he planned, what does that mean for Badger’s carefully planned garden?
A Good Place by Lucy Cousins
Bee, Ladybug, Beetle, and Dragonfly are looking for a good place to live, but they each want something different. Every time they find what seems like the perfect spot, they soon discover it‘s either underfoot, near traffic, or otherwise not safe. How will these four friends ever find a good place?
Your beginning readers will love exploring a garden with Biscuit!
Biscuit in the Garden by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
Biscuit, the little yellow puppy, is excited to explore the garden. From the prettiest flowers to the smallest bugs, there’s so much to see. Learn about insect habitats and homes in this sweet graphic novel about a curious beetle.
Burt the Beetle Lives Here by Ashley Spires
All Burt the beetle wants to do is settle down and find the perfect home for himself. Should he build his home out of silk like monarch butterflies or make it out of wood fibers and saliva like wasps? Maybe he could just move into a human home. How will Burt know when he’s found the perfect home? Follow along in this charming and humorous tale as Burt learns all about different insect habitats and homes, and just maybe finds his just-right home.
These children’s nonfiction titles teach about all types of homes and what treasures they hold.
Homes: From Then to Now by Carol Lawrence
No matter what type of home it is, where it is, or when people lived in it, people have always wanted to feel safe, secure, and sheltered. Homes have always met people’s basic needs, but our changing lifestyles have influenced the kinds of homes we have.
How Things Work in the House by Lisa Campbell Ernst
Award-winning author and illustrator Lisa Campbell Ernst takes a close and quirky look at household objects and shows how “amazingness is going on around us every nanosecond of the day” by inviting kids to marvel at things as close to home as their own house!
Tweens and Teens
Does your teen prefer fiction or nonfiction? Either way, check out these books on gardening below.
Blooming at the Texas Sunrise Hotel by Kimberly Willis Holt
Twelve-year-old Stevie’s world changes drastically when her parents are tragically killed, and she is forced to live with her estranged grandfather at his run-down motel. After failed attempts to connect with her grandfather, Stevie befriends the colorful motel tenants and neighbors. Together, they decide to bring some color and life to the motel by planting a flower garden, against Stevie’s grandfather’s wishes. It will take Stevie’s departure before her grandfather realizes just how needed she is by everyone.
The Story of Seeds: From Mendel’s Garden to Your Plate, and How There’s More of Less to Eat Around the World by Nancy F. Castaldo
With the growth of genetically-modified foods, the use of many seeds is dwindling. With a global cast of men and women, scientists and laypeople, and photographic documentation, this book chronicles where our food comes from, and most importantly, where it is going as Castaldo digs deeper into the importance of seeds in our world.
ADULTS
Adults love a good home-and-garden book. These specially-picked selections are just for you!
The New Classic Home: Modern Meets Traditional Style by Paloma Contreras
Beloved designer Paloma Contreras focuses her expertise on one of the most desired yet difficult tasks in decorating: how to design a space that successfully mixes traditional and modern elements. By walking readers through her four main techniques – Color, Texture & Pattern, Scale Proportion, and Tension – Contreras demonstrates how to pair seemingly disparate pieces from different eras and styles to create harmonious, timeless, and balanced interiors.
Southern Gardening All Year Long by Gary R. Bachman
This visually-inviting read approaches southern landscapes from a different perspective. Instead of encyclopedic lists and articles focused on botanical gardens or someone else’s landscape, Bachman connects with his audience through personal stories that share his expertise and knowledge gained over decades of planting, all told in an easily-digestible format. He hopes to help gardeners be successful in their own landscapes, alleviate some of the apprehension new gardeners feel, and inspire experienced gardeners to try new plants instead of the same old plantings every year.
