What's in the Garden?

K-Gr 2--Rhythmic poetry gives one-page clues that answer the title question. "It's round. It's tiny. It grows on a bush./When made into sauce, it turns to a mush./This fabulous fruit can be used as a dye, /And is really yummy in muffins and pie." The fresh fruits and vegetables revealed by turning the page are celebrated in vibrant full-color illustrations. Birds and insects also populate these gardens-a slug on celery leaves, a ladybug alighting on a tomato stem in pursuit of aphids, and a crow circling corn plants. Very, very close-up, realistic illustrations show children thoroughly enjoying the garden's bounty-saliva drips onto an apple being crunched, lettuce sticks out of an African American boy's teeth, broccoli drenched in dip fills the mouth of an Asian American boy. There's a recipe for each fruit or vegetable-e.g., garlic mashed potatoes, blueberry pie, and ants on a log. Less-than-precise editing mars some of the recipes, e.g., four cups of peeled potatoes probably should be four potatoes; roasting pumpkin seeds is a lot messier than the recipe lets on, as is creating a lattice top on the blueberry pie. Better editing would also have caught the missing apostrophe in the carrot poem. Four pages for adults are filled with ideas for using the book with children.--Frances E. Millhouser, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA