My Busy Green Garden (Tilbury House Nature Book) - Hardcover

Pierce, Terry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0884484955 ISBN 13: 9780884484950

Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers, 2017

Synopsis

CCBC Choice Book 2018 : The Annual Best of the Year List of the Cooperative Children's Book Center

This is my busy green garden.

There’s a surprise
In clever disguise,
That hangs in my busy green garden.

This is a ladybug dawdling so,
Near the surprise, in clever disguise,
That hangs in my busy green garden.

This is a honeybee buzzing below
The red spotted ladybug dawdling so,
Near the surprise, in clever disguise,
That hangs in my busy green garden.

So begins this lyrical tribute to the bugs, bees, and birds that make the garden such a busy place. With each turned page, more visitors appear, and all the while the “surprise”―a chrysalis―changes unnoticed until, on the last page, a butterfly emerges and flies away across the garden’s well-tended borders. Back-of-book notes about the natural histories of the garden’s denizens complete this lovely and lively portrait of backyard nature, which is also a gentle meditation on the rewards of paying attention. A chipmunk hides on every page to divert and engage young readers.

Fountas & Pinnell Level O

Color throughout

About this title

About the Authors

TERRY PIERCE (Ridgecrest, CA) was a Montessori teacher for 22 years before writing children’s books. Her 18 books include Tae Kwon Do! (Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of 2007); Blackberry Banquet; Mother Goose Rhymes (a 2007 AEP Distinguished Achievement Award Winner) and My Busy Green Garden. She is an instructor in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.

CAROL SCHWARTZ has illustrated more than 50 picture books, including My Busy Green Garden, which Kirkus called “a lovely literary and artistic rendering.” Her other books include Sea Squares (an Outstanding Science Trade Book and Children’s Choice award winner), The Maiden of Northland (an Aesop Accolade List book), and Thinking about Ants (an Outstanding Science Trade Book). Carol taught illustration at Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and has shared her passion for illustrating at the hundreds of elementary schools, libraries, conferences, and colleges she has visited.

Reviews

PreS-Gr 1—Pierce uses cumulative poetry to depict a garden full of life and motion awaiting the grand reveal of a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. The text is repetitive, with strong rhyme and an abundance of action verbs, well suited to the portrayal of the bustling garden. The end matter features supplemental information on the various critters mentioned within the poem, such as the buzzing honeybee and hungry chickadee. The visuals provide depth to the simple text, with vibrant colors and rich details, including droplets of water trickling down individual petals as well as a reoccurring snail and chipmunk scampering throughout the pages. Echoing the emergence of the butterfly, the illustrations are contained within a defined frame until the final stanza of the poem, when the garden's cleverly disguised surprise is unveiled and the illustrations burst from their frame to cover the pages in greenery. In addition to the animated cast of insects and animals, there are a tremendous variety of flowers shown within the garden, including forget-me-nots planted by the garden gate, echinacea, tiger lilies, and daisies. VERDICT An engaging read-aloud for young children and new readers, with a lot to discover among the diversity of both the flora and fauna shown in the illustrations.—Kelly Topita, Anne Arundel County Public Library, MD

Edition details

• Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0884484955
• ISBN 13: 9780884484950
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Schwartz Carol
• Number of pages: 36