Its been awhile since I reviewed a green kids book… though we certainly haven’t stopped reading. This particular book I stumbled upon at the library. I was rushing through to pick up some of my reserved books and saw the cover on display. I could tell it was about kids and nature so it only took 2.5 seconds to scoop it up and check it out. It is a mix of The Secret Garden and Johnny Appleseed with the modern twist of a child greening desolate urban areas. The book is The Curious Garden by Peter Brown.
It tells the story of a little boy named Liam who lives in a very urban, factory town where little to no greenery exists. The opening visual is of a dreary looking city with large smokestacks, an abandoned railroad bridge, lots of abandoned buildings, and badly maintained homes and skyscrapers. Everyone stays indoors except Liam who likes to explore outside. One day when he is exploring he is run under the railroad bridge by rain and he discovers a door with stairs that goes up to the tracks. There among the broken tracks he sees a spot where a little moss and a small tree are growing and he falls in love with this tiny little garden.
Liam becomes the city “gardener” and helps this little spot to grow. During the long hard winter he makes plans and he prepares to welcome his greenery back. Well long story short he helps the garden grow so that it takes off like crazy and when the other city folk see how beautiful it is they all start gardening and the city ends up with rooftop gardens, planter boxes on their skyscraper windows, trees, bushes, and the old and forgotten buildings and abandoned vehicles are overrun by greenery. The most lovely feature is the railroad bridge. Since there is no train, the bridge is a green belt of gorgeousness that weaves it way through the whole city. My kids (4, 6) and I loved the story and the pictures.
Of course I thought it was a bit unrealistic that the smokes stacks were allowed to be overrun with greenery. Do these people not have to work anymore? LOL. It is nice idea but that bit of fantasy didn’t seem right to me somehow. I love the idea of greening our most urban and economically depressed areas but greening the landscape does not mean industry goes away. That is my only criticism though.
I highly recommend this book for you and your kiddos! Great story, great pictures, and a great message.
Looks lovely – Thank you for sharing!
What age group is it suitable for?
4 to 8 according to Amazon.
I love buying ‘green’ books for my kids, or books that help human kind out in general. There is a cute book written by Elizabeth A. Hoadley titled, “The Thanksgiving Coat: Illustrated by Kailee” that sends such a great message to children- to be sensitive to the homeless and the hungry. “The Curious Garden” looks like a book that is up my ally. thanks for the great suggestion.
My son has received this book as a gift and he LOVES it. His name is Liam too, so that makes it a little more fun. He loves pointing out all the details on the pages and talking about everything in the book. Oh, and he’s three now, but he got it when he was two and he even loved it then. It’s fun because we had our first garden last summer and he works in the yard with us a lot, so he can really relate to this book. :)
I’ll have to check and see if our local library has it. Sounds like a lovely little story!
I remember seeing that book at our elementary school’s book fair earlier this year… the illustrations are beautiful!
I didn’t hear of this book. But I think it’s good for kids. It does love Green. I have my list here, http://www.ekidsbooks.blogspot.com. Thanks for this post.
Hi there, My name is Amy Greenberg and I am the co-founder of a website called The Grandparents Guide. You can check us out at www.thegrandparentsguide.com. I would like to use your review of this book on our site. We are doing a week dedicated to gardening and getting back to nature with your grandchildren. We would create a direct link to your website, adding yo u to our FB page and possibly our newsletter, offering you the opportunity to get some exposure from our viewers. It would be fantastic if in return, you could let some of your viewers know about us by highlighting us in some way.You can email me at am*@th******************.comPlease let me know if this sounds interesting to you.Thanks,Amy GreenbergCo FounderThe Grandparents Guide