THE LITTLE GREEN PEA

A little green pea growing in row 53 dreams of someday becoming a tree. It is only when the pea is on the kitchen table next to a tuna-casserole recipe that he faces up to his future reality. He manages to roll to the floor, where he is eaten by the worm who narrates the story: “We worms do the mixing, the seeds do the mingling / and all of us wiggle and all the while giggle… / We especially like poo (we really do) / ’cause out of it all; something grew, grew, grew...” Along with the worm’s statement that, “You see, a pea is a seed,” this is likely to give children the idea that the pea did in fact grow into a tree instead of simply nourishing it, an impression reinforced by the final image of the pea’s bowtie atop the tree. Keiser’s watercolors reflect the humor of the rhymes, but are unable to overcome the text’s lack of clarity. One to skip—troubling science, a hodgepodge of cutesy rhymes and anthropomorphized animals and vegetables make for a bad combination. (Picture book. 4-7)