Planting the Wild Garden

Gr 2—4—No one "plants" a wild garden, but this attractive book, with its simple, often lyrical text and watercolors full of motion, shows how wild seeds make it in an unplanned world. A flock of goldfinches "bobbles" among the thistle-heads, a fox-chased rabbit scatters cockleburs as she flees, and a child blows on a dandelion—all dispersing seeds across the landscape. Galbraith's gentle words remind readers that wind, water, birds, animals, and people plant the wild meadow—"All of us. Together"—while Halperin's soft watercolors in pastel shades of peach and lavender, tan and green show young wonderers how it all happens. A shade more identification of some seeds (or their development stages) would be helpful, but, from the elegant seed-full endpapers to the carefully selected font, this is a lovely introduction to the modes of seed dispersal evolved by some common meadow plants.—Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY