My Busy Green Garden

PreS-Gr 1—Pierce uses cumulative poetry to depict a garden full of life and motion awaiting the grand reveal of a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. The text is repetitive, with strong rhyme and an abundance of action verbs, well suited to the portrayal of the bustling garden. The end matter features supplemental information on the various critters mentioned within the poem, such as the buzzing honeybee and hungry chickadee. The visuals provide depth to the simple text, with vibrant colors and rich details, including droplets of water trickling down individual petals as well as a reoccurring snail and chipmunk scampering throughout the pages. Echoing the emergence of the butterfly, the illustrations are contained within a defined frame until the final stanza of the poem, when the garden's cleverly disguised surprise is unveiled and the illustrations burst from their frame to cover the pages in greenery. In addition to the animated cast of insects and animals, there are a tremendous variety of flowers shown within the garden, including forget-me-nots planted by the garden gate, echinacea, tiger lilies, and daisies.