This Summer while the kids and I have been taking care of our first garden together, we’ve found some books that have become favorites for a lifetime.

I love books and if I’m not careful, that is the first item that will cause me to go over budget each month. I’ve learned the discipline of checking out all new and recommended books at the library first, and then if I fall in love with them, buying them to add to our home library.

The four books I’m sharing with you in this post are ones we love so much, we had to purchase them… and I’m so glad we did.

Whose Garden Is It? is an entertaining book about a garden full of characters such as rabbits, moles, mice, insects, rain, sun, and more, who each offer a reason why they believe the garden they live in, is theirs alone. This is one of those books that offers the opportunity for a parent to invent all kinds of fun different voices for each character, and I think that is part of why my kids love this one so much.

At the end of the book you and your children are left to decide who the garden truly belongs to. Can you guess WHO my children chose?

I’ll give you a hint… He wasn’t mentioned in the book, but He owns and created EVERYTHING!!!

What Do Roots Do? is a great book for introducing the most basic concept of the parts of a plant to children. My four year old didn’t have a clue about what was happening beneath the plants she walks by everyday, but after reading this book together, she talked about roots incessantly for days.

I had to be very, very clear with her that she couldn’t go pulling up every plant she saw in order to verify that it had roots. We did go out and pull up some weeds together though, and she was delightfully surprised to find that the book was right… plants have roots.

Who Grew My Soup? is a very funny book with very funny illustrations. The entire book rhymes and it is an amusing tale about a boy who is whisked away on a journey to learn who grew all the vegetables in his soup. We read this one at least three times a day the first week we got it in the mail from Amazon. No other book would satisfy that week.

WARNING: This book mentions boogers. To some, a deterrent… to others, a selling point. I leave you to decide.

The illustrator, C.F. Payne also did the artwork for a book that has been one of our family favorites for years, The Remarkable Farkle McBride.

A Seed Is Sleepy is my personal favorite out of all of these selections because it is so educational, and because the illustrations are breathtaking.

Just look at the color and detail in these pictures. They are so realistic and accurate, but still so painterly and romantic. I love them.

The information I shared last week in my post on the Birds and the Bees, came out of some research I did spurred on by what I learned from this book about plant parts and reproduction.

And… did you know that 90% of all trees grow from the roots of an already established tree, as opposed to from a brand new seed? Fascinating! I learned that from this book too, and sure enough as the kids and I went out into our yard and explored, we discovered little tree shoots sprouting up all over, coming from the roots of our already established huge trees.

If you’re already gardening with your kids, or are planning to garden with them next spring, keep these four precious books in mind. They have certainly added tremendously to our understanding of what it is our plants are doing out there in that backyard of ours, and they’ve made our gardening experience together richer, more whimsical, and so educational.

Visit the Inadvertent Farmer and see what others are doing in their KinderGARDENS.

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