Recently, I've come across a couple of books I wanted to share with you. They aren't going to be found in the Garden section of your local Barnes & Noble, since they are children's books, but I thought you might like the look of these as much as I did.
This one, especially, really intrigued me. Here's the review I read:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/books/review/Mar
Synopsis
When the first apples of the season--Ida Red and Paula Red, Twenty Ounce, McIntosh, and Ginger Gold--show up in the city markets, it's time to take out the big pot and make applesauce. Eden Lispon's lovingly recounted description of a family's applesauce-making ritual describes the buying, peeling, cooking and stirring; the wait for the sauce to cool and the first taste. Mordicai Gerstein's paintings are full of the colors and flavors of the season: red apples, orange leaves, blue skies. Here's a lovely picture book celebrating an American family tradition.
The New York Times - Leonard S. Marcus
Tolstoy was wrong: happy families are not all alike. Some make applesauce, and those who do, the author of this smartly observed, warm-hearted tale implies, are almost surely the better for it…Gerstein, who won the 2004 Caldecott Medal for The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, draws in a wiry, kinetic line that touches down lightly on the page…these gravity-defying, dreamlike images seem to nod approvingly at the untamed spirit that drives the pursuit of any glorious obsession.
More Reviews and Recommendations
Biography
Eden Ross Lipson was children's book editor of The New York Times Book Review until 2005, and is the author of the authoritative New York Times Parent's Guide to the Best Books for Children.
Mordicai Gerstein is the author and illustrator of some 30 books for children. He received the 2004 Caldecott Medal for THE MAN WHO WALKED BETWEEN THE TOWERS and is the winner of four New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year Awards. His most recent book is A BOOK, published in Spring 2009 by Roaring Brook Press.
We've talked about the importance of getting kids outdoors, and nurturing an early interest in gardening. Maybe some of these books will help:
It's Earth Day (Little Critter Series)
From Seed to Pumpkin (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science Books Series)
Toad Cottages & Shooting Stars
Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots
