My First Garden Book ~ A life-size guide to growing things at home - Hardcover

Grade 3-5-- An oversized, lavishly illustrated book about container gardening. Several projects are described, offering step-by-step full-color photographs: growing sprouts for salad; planting seeds and bulbs; making a hanging basket of flowers; creating a desert garden of cacti; growing fruits, vegetables, herbs, and house plants. They're so beautiful that readers may be inspired to try them all; the directions, however, are not complete enough for beginners. The size of the pot is left for readers to decide; sometimes an ingredient is photographed but not mentioned in the text. These weaknesses do not render the book useless: its ideas, beautifully if incompletely presented, can be the basis for adult-directed activities. Linnea's Windowsill Garden (Farrar, 1988) by Bjork has some of the same projects, modest illustrations, more scientific information, and is more realistic (there's a chapter on bugs, for example). Put together, the two books would make an inspiring combination for hopeful gardeners. --Carolyn Jenks, formerly at Oyster River Elementary School, Durham, NH
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.