Winter has its perks, but as a resident of New England I am more than ready for spring by the time it finally gets here! Here are some picture books to help celebrate spring, or at least to usher in its approach.

"Every year Mom and I plant a rainbow." Planting a Rainbow is a simple description of how a flower garden takes shape during the spring. The narrator and their mother plant seeds, bulbs, and seedlings in red, orange, yellow, even green (ferns), blue, and purple. Lois Ehlert's colorful illustrations focus solely on the flowers and dirt, and show as they grow from tiny plants to full-fledged blooms -- a lovely and colorful celebration of new life during spring!

Rechenka's Eggs, by Patricia Polacco, is a sweet Russion story of Babushka, a skilled egg decorator, who saves an injured goose one day. When the goose accidentally destroys her decorated eggs she is upset, but she finds that "miracles" can happen as "Rechenka" the goose begins producing beautifully decorated eggs all on her own! The illustrations here are detailed and colorful, showing us a few aspects of Russian culture, and an even sweeter surprise for Babushka at the end. This also makes a great Easter story.

For those of us for whom spring just can't come quickly enough, And Then It's Spring, by Julie Fogliano, perfectly captures the waiting and wondering that happens every year -- we plant our seeds and it's still brown, brown, brown... we wonder, is it really going to come? But then it does! Erin Stead's lovely pastel colors capture both the browns that seem to last forever, and the greens that finally come at the end of all that waiting.

Speaking of waiting for spring, Spring for Sophie shows us this wondering and impatience from a child's perspective. Sophie keeps asking her parents how she will know when spring gets there. They tell her to use her senses to observe the changes: the squishiness of the ground, the sounds of the birds, the rain that falls which finally turns everything green, and then maybe at that point spring will finally be there. 

Old Bear, by Kevin Henkes, is a short book about a bear who hibernates through the winter and has a fantastical dream about every season -- from fall-colored fish to giant flowers in spring. But then at the end he waskes up to discover that it really is spring, and time for him to come out. Also by Kevin Henkes, see Egg for some more lovely spring pastel colors.

We enjoyed reading another installment from the Messner/Neal duo, after reading Over and Under the Snow (see my review here). Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt includes beautiful, colorful artwork and tells the story of some of the things that go on in a garden over the course of a year. The text is spare and fairly poetic, and communicates facts about bugs, plants, and the food chain without a lot of technical terms. 

The book follows a girl and her Nana as they haul off dead plants and sow seeds in the spring, watch the vegetables ripen in the summer, and harvest and put the garden "to bed" in the autumn, and soon it rests under a blanket of snow for the winter. We're also introduced to some of the creatures that live in gardens: ladybugs, earth worms, pill bugs, and even garter snakes.

It's a great reminder that there's a lot going on in one little garden, and it's all interconnected -- even down in the dirt where we don't often see it.

Scrounged From: Our local library

Format: Hardcover
Author: Kate Messner
Illustrator: Christopher Silas Neal
Pages: 52
Content Advisory: None

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The Magic Garden is a simple book of lovely and whimsical illustrations that delves into the mysteries that exist right outside our doorsteps. It takes the reader on a little tour of an ordinary garden, pointing out some of the amazing creatures that live and work there, regardless of whether we notice them or not.

From snakes to spiders, bees to birds, we are encouraged to take a closer look at some of the more "shy" creatures that surround us every day. While I'm not really a fan of the word "magic" being used to describe nature, I do think the book is simply trying to communicate how intricate and mysterious some of the everyday facets of nature can be, even when they're ignored.

At the end of the book, there are some more detailed paragraphs about many of the creatures that are mentioned -- how they live, eat, weave, spin, etc.

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

Scrounged From: NetGalley

Format: Kindle
Author/Illustrator: Lemniscates
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

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The photography in The Seal Garden is stunning. I love it when books use photographs of familiar creatures to introduce us to very specific places. This book covers "the seal garden," a special area of underwater vegetation in the Great Bear Sea off the coast of British Columbia, where seals and other animals can go to be safe from storms and predators.

There are some really lovely shots here, of seals swimming around under and above the water. My favorites were the pictures of shafts of light spreading through the water and plants. You get the feeling that this book was created by people who genuinely know and love the area, and is not just another "general nature information" project.

The text focuses on describing some of the animals that live in this environment and some of the things they may experience on a daily basis -- sheltering from a storm or a group of hunting orcas, eating fish, lounging on rocks, etc.

My only complaint is that I didn't see that the book ever actually tells us where the Great Bear Sea is, other than mentioning the Pacific Ocean. Since I'm not from the Pacific Northwest, the name was unfamiliar to me, so it's unfortunate that I had to resort to Google to figure out exactly where this place is located -- even a simple map would have been very helpful.

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

Scrounged From: NetGalley

Format: Kindle
Author: Nicholas Read
Photographer: Ian McAllister
Pages: 32
Content Advisory: None

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Simon and the Big, Bad, Angry Beasts is a story about a boy who expresses his anger in harmful ways, which begin to manifest themselves as progressively meaner beasts that lash out at his friends and family. Though it feels good at first, Simon eventually realizes that his beasts are not making things better -- in fact, they're making it so that no one wants to be around him. By learning to be more calm and mindful, he is able to find a healthier way to deal with his anger.

I think this story works very well as a parable of sorts, and though I can't personally speak to its effectiveness, I can see how it could be useful in helping to give children a visual and fantastical perspective on how unmanaged anger can hurt others and them. I don't know whether or not this would be the kind of story I'd just randomly pick up to read with a child who doesn't struggle with anger -- I see it as more of a teaching tool, but it looks like a good one.

The story focuses a lot more on the anger part than on the management -- it wraps up rather quickly and somewhat abruptly, but the book does include a lot of explanations, tips, and encouragement in the end notes about how it can be used to help children who need it, so hopefully this will be a valuable tool for parents and educators.

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

Scrounged From: NetGalley

Format: Kindle
Author/Illustrator: Ian De Haes
Pages: 40
Content Advisory: None

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