It's Our Garden

It's Our Garden: From Seeds To Harvest in a School Garden
by George Ancona
48 pages; ages 5 - 8
Candlewick Press, 2013

Acequia Madre Elementary School, in Santa Fe NM is home to tomatoes and cucumbers, beans and corn. It's also - part of the time - home to the students who rake and weed and tend the plants. In early spring children flip through seed catalogs and figure out where to plant the flowers and fruits. They start seedlings in the greenhouse and, when the soil warms, plant things outside.

But the garden is more than vegetables. It's a home for butterflies, pill bugs and garter snakes. It inspires art - both visual and culinary - and provides a place for community gatherings. Families share music, hold harvest festivals and make compost in the garden.

What I love about this book is the artwork. Yes, the photos are wonderful, but even more wonderful are the illustrations by the children: drawings of bumblebees and cucumbers, flowers and how-to-make-a-pizza. This book might just inspire kids to turn off the screen and go play in the dirt - er, garden soil.

Check out more nifty nonfiction at NC Teacher Stuff.  Review copy provided by the publisher.