Gardening Books that helped us!

I am lucky to be able to review books for Candlewick Press and I got even luckier when some of the books they sent me to review were books about gardening for kids. My kids and I decided to start a garden this year, so these couldn't have come at a better time. 

We planted squash, okra, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers! Here is a picture of some of our lovely veggies so far...

 

We have a ton of tomatoes to go pick today and hopefully the okra will be ready too! I have never claimed to be a gardener, but I am really enjoying it! I know that my Papa would be proud since he was the definite farmer of the family. 

The first book that Kylie, Jaxon and I read was Maisy Grows a Garden by Lucy Cousins. 

In this book Maisy the beloved mouse and her friend Panda plant thier very own garden. I loved it because it showed what had to be done to plant and maintain a garden but on a kids level (and maybe a virgin-gardener's level too). Each page depicted what was being done and the tools that were needed in order to complete the task. The pop-ups and pop-outs were a great way for us to interact with the text and see what Maisy Mouse was up to! We really enjoyed this one and it definitely set us up for our own gardening experience! 



The next book we read was It's Our Garden: From Seeds to Harvest in a School Garden by George Ancona. 

I appreciated this book one a few levels... one as a new gardener, one as a mother, and yet another as a teacher. In this book we learned about an elementary school in Santa Fe where the children run outside not to play, but to work in the school's garden! We learned a variety of gardening techniques (such as the traditional Native American way to garden- the three sisters garden), but we learned more than that. We were able to see how not just the students took part in this garden and its maintenance, but how the community rallied around it. Even when school is not is session there are still parents and other volunteers who help take care of the garden! How cool is that? I loved that when all of the vegetables were harvested, the community came together to eat the produce in a variety of ways including pizza made in a brick oven that the students made! This is a great book to show a sense of community, but also for schools to read and get ideas for ways to improve community involvement. Teaching in a smaller district I can definitely see where this would work for us!


Our garden is growing stronger and stronger by the day (we are currently on week number two of majorly heavy rains and storms) and I fear that it may take over if I don't get out there soon to gather the veggies! Hope you are having a great summer!

Happy reading!