Book review: 'Grow! How We Get Food from Our Garden' is a simple and colorful picture book

I've embarked upon a new adventure this year. I'm trying my hand at growing a winter garden. That's right! I'll update everyone on how well (or terrible) I am at growing greens in a few hoop houses I've set up. 

So, with gardening on my mind, I was excited to receive Grow! How We Get Food from Our Garden. First, let me just be clear, this book is for KIDS not for garden growing professionals like myself.

Or wait, maybe it IS for me? Because I am so so not a professional!

This book tells, simply, how food is grown, nourished, and harvested. Along the way, there are several pages with just lists of words (in poem fashion) of garden produce. One or two pages do share interesting tidbits about plants, but the majority of this book is a cute little poem that can be fun to read.

The illustrations are absolutely fantastic and I've found myself looking at them over and over again. I love all the bright colors and the joy behind each work of art. 

Author Karl Beckstrand and illustrator Zanara have themed this garden book as a multicultural one, meaning the two individuals pictured in the book are different races. But, other than their skin color being different, I really couldn't tell which cultures they were from. I mean, other than they were from a culture that gardened.

But maybe that was intentional? Maybe Beckstrand and Zanara are trying to show readers that all cultures garden so we're all pretty similar? At least, that's what I got out of reading this book!

Grow! How We Get Food from Our Garden, can be an enjoyable read with your kids and a good way to introduce gardening to littles. This is a clean book with nothing offensive in it.

 

Book breakdown

28 pages with color illustrations
Best for ages: 3-7
Educational factor: low
Moral content: nothing offensive in it