Thank You, Garden

November 15, 2019
A diverse, intergenerational community works together in an urban garden. Scanlon's spare, rhyming text reads like an upbeat playground chant: "Garden ready, / garden new // Garden so much / work to do!" Verses cheerfully acknowledge the garden's denizens--humans, flora, and fauna--as well as the chores and patience that yield the harvest. Shin's flat, minimalist paintings depict four square raised beds with a red picnic table at their center. Stylized plants, some identifiable, most not, populate the plots rather primly, with lots of soil in between; only the tomatoes vine and twine with genuine exuberance as days pass. Children work, but the littlest two primarily play--with small vehicles, water, mud, and the garden's critters. Though many skin tones are represented among the seven gardeners, facial features are rudimentary: black dots for eyes, red triangular noses, black crescents and triangles for mouths. Outfits change throughout, adding interest, and readers can spot a toy garden gnome that appears frequently. As the group prepares to gather at the table for a big salad, veggies, and luscious strawberries, Scanlon closes with lines of metaphor and gratitude: "Garden growing like a child, / rosy, / leggy, / fresh, and wild-- // Wild in this muddy mess, / garden, thank you.... // Garden, yes!" Joining a bumper crop of gardening titles, this suffices without standing out. (Picture book. 3-6)

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February 1, 2020

PreS-Gr 1-A multiracial group of neighbors plant and enjoy a community garden. Scanlon employs brief rhyming text to describe the many steps involved in preparing the soil, planting and watering, and waiting for the crops to grow. But gardening is not all work. There is "garden play," too, for children can splash and romp in the mud created by their watering hose. The cartoon illustrations, rendered in acrylic paint, watercolor, and Photoshop, have a matte finish. They depict an ever-smiling group of apple-cheeked children and adults, including a grandmother, engaged in gardening activities. Almost all the scenes are spreads on dark grounds that bleed off the pages. In one charming scene, a girl and boy kneel, the girl with her ear to the ground, both listening intently for the "garden hardly makes a sound/growing, slowly, underground." Even a "garden frog and worm and bees" make an appearance. Finally, the neighbors gather around a table to enjoy the fruits of their labor with a resounding, "Garden, yes!" VERDICT This delightful story is a perfect way to usher in the spring gardening season and inspire readers to get going on their own planting.-Marianne Saccardi, Children's Literature Consultant, Cambridge, MA

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 3, 2020
An array of people of varied skin tones and ages work and play among an urban garden’s raised beds, accompanied by fragmentary rhyming text, in this pleasant book: “Garden ready/ garden new// garden so much/ work to do!” Smiling, triangle-nosed children with dot eyes admire critters, play with hoses, and watch sunsets, grounding the metaphor in Scanlon’s loveliest line: “Garden growing like a child,/ rosy,/ leggy,/ fresh, and wild.” The book ends with an image of people gathered around a table joyfully eating salad, but the reading experience is less nourishing, with choices that sometimes skew toward the convenient: “Garden rock/ and garden water/ Garden son/ and garden daughter.” Shin’s illustrations, created with acrylic, watercolor, and photo editing software, use bright color and chunky crisp shapes to create charming garden scenes. Ages 3–7.