Plant the Tiny Seed

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Author(s)

Christie Matheson

Publisher

Greenwillow Books

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

January 24, 2017

ISBN

978-0062393395

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How do you make a garden grow? In this playful companion to the popular Tap the Magic Tree and Touch the Brightest Star, you will see how tiny seeds bloom into beautiful flowers. And by tapping, clapping, waving, and more, young readers can join in the action! Christie Matheson masterfully combines the wonder of the natural world with the interactivity of reading.

Beautiful collage-and-watercolor art follows the seed through its entire life cycle, as it grows into a zinnia in a garden full of buzzing bees, curious hummingbirds, and colorful butterflies. Children engage with the book as they wiggle their fingers to water the seeds, clap to make the sun shine after rain, and shoo away a hungry snail. Appropriate for even the youngest child, Plant the Tiny Seed is never the same book twice—no matter how many times you read it!

And for curious young nature lovers, a page of facts about seeds, flowers, and the insects and animals featured in the book is included at the end. Fans of Press Here, Eric Carle, and Lois Ehlert will find their next favorite book in Plant the Tiny Seed.

Editor reviews

4 reviews

Overall rating

4.3

Plot

4.0(2)

Characters

N/A(0)

Writing Style

N/A(0)

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.5(2)

Interactive and Informative

September 19, 2017 (Updated: September 19, 2017)

Overall rating

4.5

Plot

N/A

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

This book relies on the interactive nature of read-alouds for young children. Beginning with a single zinnia seed, the book encourages children to “press it down” into the dirt, “wiggle your fingers to add some water,” and “rub the sun to make it hotter.” Child readers “help” a handful of seeds grow into flowers and then scatter new seeds through performing a number of simple actions.
The illustrations were bright and appropriately simple, allowing children to focus on just the few elements involved in growing flowers. Readers see the same scene on every page, which emphasizes how much changes in the life cycle of a plant. Many young children will enjoy finding the ladybug in each image. The text was engaging with exclamations and onomatopoeia, but as I read it aloud to children, I found myself stumbling occasionally over the rhythm. Most of the time, there is a clear rhyme scheme, but some of the longer lines felt clunky and out-of-sync. To be fair, though, the group of preschoolers I read this with were so engaged with tapping the clouds or wiggling their fingers to create rain that they didn’t notice my rhythmic stumbles.
Young children will enjoy this book throughout the year, but understandably, caretakers of toddlers and preschoolers would find it a strong choice during lessons on springtime. Matheson’s child-friendly note at the end, which gives some more detailed (and accurate) instructions about how to grow zinnias, is further encouragement to extend the reading experience into a real garden.

Good Points

Engaging and educational

Sarah Jackson, Staff Reviewer Top 500 Reviewer 25 reviews

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A Fun and Interactive Book

March 07, 2017

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

N/A

Characters

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Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

PLANT THE TINY GARDEN’s simple illustrations and text allow readers to fully immerse themselves in the interactive aspect of the book. As you flip the pages, you do everything needed to make flowers grow: plant the seeds by pushing them into the ground, wiggle your fingers to make it rain, and make the sun shine brighter by rubbing it—soon you’ll have a garden on your pages! A ladybug on every page brings added fun to the book, and Matheson includes instructions for growing a real garden too.

Action is lacking in the actual pages of the book, but children will be busy working hard to make their plants grow, so it isn’t really missed. This is a good addition to a unit on planting and growing flowers.

My thanks to the publisher and YA Books Central for a copy of the book in exchange for my unbiased review.

Good Points

Interactive fun

A good addition to a unit on planting and growing flowers