|
New Junior Garden Book - Book Review |
|
|
|
|
Book Reviews -
Home and Finances
|
|
Written by Jennifer Thompson
|
 New
Junior Garden Book,
Better Homes and Gardens
I love gardening, and I'm hoping to instill this same love in
my daughter, who's still just two. When I saw this book and started
flipping through the pages, I was intrigued. The more I skimmed,
the more interested I got, until I found myself sitting down on
the floor of the bookstore (Admit it! You've done it too.), really
reading this book. I ended up buying it, and I'm so glad that
I did.
New
Junior Garden Book has a lot of good information
in it, making it a terrific resource for helping kids learn all
about gardening. The illustrations are bright and fun, and the
various projects are all ranked according to difficulty. Projects
include planting a "pit-stop planter", making a worm
tower and compost, growing grass in eggshells, building a toad
home, growing a bean teepee and growing gourds. I haven't done
any of these projects with my daughter yet, but I will
just as soon as she is old enough, and I can hardly wait!
Something that occurred to me as I was thinking about this review
was that you, as a parent, don't need to know much (if anything)
about gardening in order to use this book with your child. In
fact, you could use the book to learn all about gardens right
alongside your child! I think that's quite exciting, as I strongly
value cultivating a sense of awe and respect for the natural world
that's all around us. My daughter, like most kids, already likes
to play in the water, dig in the dirt and move piles of gravel
from one location to another. It is my hope that by doing fun
projects with dirt, plants, compost, worms and other garden staples,
my daughter will grow up loving the outdoors and its power and
beauty as much as I do.
New
Junior Garden Book includes a glossary, an illustrated
guide to a variety of gardening tools, and resources such as "Great
Kids' Gardens" to visit and "Great Plants for Kids",
a geographical mapping of what grows best in various regions of
the U.S. All in all, this is a great book to help children and
parents alike get a little dirt under their fingernails as they
learn new skills and facts.
Copyright
2002
This review is available for reprint.
|
