Plant a seed to read with these children's books about gardening

With a generous grant from the Ann Arbor Public Schools Education Foundation and personal donations, the Burns Park PTO and students have built and planted a huge school garden. With mud, sweat, and, possibly, tears, they are growing a new tradition.

A few nights ago, I was walking through the garden to see the progress. Three fifth grade girls were there, walking around and pointing and saying things like “I planted that” and “Oooh, there’s the kohlrabi”. They truly take pride and ownership.

Kindergarten students Sophia Sprick and Lorena Murillo enjoy a book together.

Rachel Erdstein | Contributor

Another example of student excitement and connection happened a couple of weeks ago. A kindergarten student approached me in the library. She was holding a copy of "From the Garden: A Counting Book About Growing Food" by Michael Dahl. She suggested to me that this would be a good book to read aloud because of the school garden. At six years old, she had made the connection between literature and the things going on around her.

There are so many good children’s books about gardening. This time of year I love sharing these books with my students, and find it is even more rewarding now that they make connections to their work in the garden.

I enjoy exploring the connection between the words “garden” and “kindergarten”. It is fun to say, so each spring I “plant” a kindergarten garden on one of my bulletin boards. Together, the students and I read a variety of gardening books like "Planting a Rainbow" and "Eating Vegetable Soup" by Lois Ehlert, "Two Old Potatoes and Me" by John Coy, "The Carrot Seed" by Ruth Krauss, and "The Ugly Vegetables" by Grace Lin. The students tell me about their gardens at home and, now, at school, too. I tell them about my garden and how I learned how to plant potatoes from the book "Two Old Potatoes and Me." The children draw pictures of gardens and I place them on the board. These pictures stay “planted” and “grow” all summer long.

Second and third grade Girl Scouts, Lauren Bretzius, Allison Diebolt and Anna Kinsey, water their sprouts in the library.

Rachel Erdstein | Contributor

When those same students are in first grade, we “harvest” the pictures and the students can take them home. During the “harvest”, we read books like "The Garden that We Grew" by Joan Holub, "Flower Garden" by Eve Bunting, or Tomie DePaola’s new "Strega Nona’s Harvest." Others I plan to add to my repertoire are "City Green" by Dyanne DiSalvo Ryan, "Tops and Bottoms" by Janet Stevens, and "The Gardener" by Sarah Stewart.

Some of the books mentioned take on issues like cultural differences, poverty, and urban blight. In "The Ugly Vegetables", the main character thinks her mother’s garden is the ugliest in the neighborhood until she realizes that the Chinese vegetables they are growing make the most delicious soup. "City Green" tells the story of a girl and her neighbor who try to turn an empty lot into a community garden. One of my favorite books is "Seedfolks" by Paul Fleischman. It involves many social issues, and I save that for my most mature students. Each chapter of the story is told by a different character of diverse background and tells of a trash-filled city lot that gets transformed into a beautiful and productive community garden. The garden cultivates a transformation in the neighborhood as well. After reading this book, it is a refreshing change of pace to read "Weslandia," also written by Paul Fleischman. This is more of an adventurous fantasy story of a boy who creates an entire civilization based upon his newly discovered plant. Students love the juxtaposition of the two books.

Planting a garden is a wonderful way for a child to connect to the earth, to learn to nurture, and to experience the joy of harvest. Reading books about gardening, along with gardening itself, connects the reader to the wider world, to ideas about that world, and to the community of gardeners. The reader reaps a rich harvest.

Rachel Erdstein is the media specialist at Burns Park Elementary. She loves to read and share her love of reading with her students. She can be reached at rachelerdstein@gmail.com.