Let Your Imagination Sprout!: Based on the True Story of a Community Garden

With a teeny tiny seed, patience, and a little extra care, a boy and his community turn a parking lot into a thriving community garden.

Based on the true story of author Landon D’Agate’s Soil2Salad community garden initiative in Long Island, NY, this storybook and its colorful illustrations teach kids ages 3 to 8 about plants—how they grow and what each part is called—and the effort and teamwork it takes to grow a community garden. Children can learn about nature through this fun picture book with bold and brightly colored illustrations and added materials in the back including a glossary game and resources to learn more.

Let Your Imagination Sprout! makes a wonderful gift for the child in your life, for story time on Earth Day or any day!

Author Bio

Landon D’Agate is a high school student from Long Island, NY. From an early age, he developed an interest in nature, including plants, which ultimately led to interests in gardening and sustainable food practices. Let Your Imagination Sprout! is based on the true story of the Soil2Salad Community Garden, a food security initiative he founded. Its goal is to provide fresh, nutritional produce to the community. Landon hopes this book will teach young children about the benefits of gardening and teamwork and inspire readers to create their own gardens. He has received recognition for his environmental stewardship, including the 2024 Green Difference Award from Project Green Schools. In his free time, Landon enjoys playing tennis, pickleball, cooking, and spending time in his garden, of course! 

Maria DeCerce is an illustrator with a sense of humor who loves science and nature. Besides drawing fun cartoons, her favorite thing about illustrating children's books is researching, discovering, and learning new things about the world from the stories she works on. She hopes to inspire imagination and a love of learning through her artwork. 

An extremely amateur horticulturist, she has an ever-growing garden of half-alive plants at home. She lives somewhere in the desert in Arizona with a blue heeler dog, two cats, several fish, three chickens, and a pony named Ketchup. See more of her work at www.MariaDeCerce.com