An often lively take on what children may accomplish with a garden.
An earnest book about gardening that aims to teach children and adults alike how to grow food organically.
Fresh from their win in a vegetable-growing contest in Venetta’s first book, Show Me the Green! (2015), Lexi and Jason Williams become evangelists for gardening at their school, Beacon Academy. They’re eager to spread the word about organic planting techniques after their school principal puts them in charge of a contest that could win them grant money. The plot is similar to that of the previous book, but Venetta weaves in enough new information to give this one a fresh feel. When a child discovers a hornworm threatening the tomatoes, Jason explains that they need to get rid of the pest before it devours everything. Realizing that the younger children will be horrified if he kills the worm, Jason and his friend hatch a plan to keep it in a classroom. As Lexi and Jason fret about whether they’ll win the contest money, they come up with a plan to sell seeds to cover the cost of next year’s garden in case another school beats them. They also decide to teach local people how to grow their own food. He and his sister repeatedly devise such clever solutions, and some readers may wish that they were a little less perfect. Indeed, it would all feel cloying if not for the fact that community gardens have indeed become sources of food in many cities. Aided by Motz’s lively illustrations, Venetta moves the story along deftly, which makes her occasional strange phrasing jarring, as when she describes one of Lexi’s bouts of anxiety: “Nerves skirted through her pulse.” The author is stronger when she describes the garden itself: “Corn stalks were tall and thick and looked like a wall of floppy green leaves...squash plants were sturdy and full, their wide leaves shading the pale yellow fruits beneath.”
An often lively take on what children may accomplish with a garden.Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9964391-8-3
Page Count: 294
Publisher: BloominThyme Press
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
