Depart To Start

The largest one can weigh more than forty pounds.  It usually does not travel farther than from top to bottom.  This is why they are endemic to the Republic of Seychelles.  Dispersed in the air like dust, the smallest is believed to be 1/35,000,000th of an ounce in weight.  Millions of them are produced from a single source.  From the first a coco de mer tree will flourish.  From the second a special specie of orchid will bloom.

Seeds seem to house miracles when they transform into any one of the vast assortment of plants.  Seeds Move! (Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, March 19, 2019) written and illustrated by Robin Page presents all the actions associated with the distribution of seeds.  Nature has supplied clever modes of transportation carefully considering a range of habitats.

A tiny seed can one day become a flower, a fruit, or even a giant tree.

For a seed to perform its task, it requires water, air and the right temperature.  For many of them light is also a necessity.  Unlike the giant seeds of the coco de mer tree, the majority must leave the plant which produces them.

Sixteen action verbs describe the movements of sixteen seeds.  Some are designed to attach themselves to a moving body of an animal.  Others burst forth from their pods through touch or timing.  The large coconut drifts on water until it successfully finds new land so a palm tree can grow.

Some seeds trick insects, through taste, into taking them underground so they can germinate.  Frequently animals will gather seeds to eat but store them by hiding them in the dirt.  They can forget where all of them are placed, leaving the seed to create a new plant.  Did you know the durian fruit is a delectable treat to orangutans?  The seeds, though, are not tasty; so the orangutan spits them out.

The pods are already forming on the milkweed plants.  Soon those seeds will act like parachutes spreading where the breezes take them.  With berries on wild bushes handy for wild animals, seeds are carried inside them until they are released in their feces.  Readers are encouraged to plant their own seeds; specifically following the growth of a watermelon seed.  What was the last seed you planted in your garden?


As you read through the methods used by seeds to move, you'll find yourself thinking of other explanatory verbs to represent their actions.  This is an excellent technique by author Robin Page.  Simple sentences of only three words make an initial statement.  These are followed by information about the seed and the plant from which it comes. This, too, invites readers to explore more about the plant and where it is found.  Here is a sentence and the following details.

A seed sinks.
A lotus seed drops from its
pod and sinks to the bottom
of a pond.  There it will nestle
into the mud and sprout. 


Digitally rendered, all the illustrations, beginning with the open and matching dust jacket and book case, are realistically detailed in layers reminiscent of collage. On the front of the jacket and case six of the sixteen movements are presented through an engaging design and layout with the natural colors more noticeable on the white background.  To the left, on the back, we are brought very close to a spiny mouse who gathers and scatters seeds.  This is an interior image, too.

The opening and closing endpapers are a rich spring green. A combination of two other images are pictured on the title page.  For the introductory paragraphs, the blue used for the text on the jacket, case and title page becomes the canvas, supplying a striking contrast to the floating milkweed seeds.

Subsequent images are either double-page pictures or full-page pictures.  Once a portion of one image carries to the opposite page.  For the most part, Robin Page brings readers close to the seeds, enlarging them as they move.  Ants are as big as an adult hand.  A featured dung beetle is barely shy of the larger specie (6.7 inches) and sixty-two times as big as the smallest one. (National Geographic Kids)  Sometimes two perspectives will be showcased in a single image.

One of my many favorite illustrations spans two pages.  Along the top half of the image a sandy beach stretches left to right.  Above this is a row of palm trees and other island vegetation.  White clouds are feathered on the blue sky.  In the ocean on the left a coconut drifts close to readers.  We can see a small stem and leaves have sprouted.  On the right a sea turtle is at rest under the surface, smaller in contrast to the seed.


When you think of this book, Seeds Move! written and illustrated by Robin Page, you know as a read aloud younger audiences will be asking to have it read again.  This would make for a wonderful creative drama reading with motions attached to the verbs.  You could also have children brainstorm other verbs attached to the movement of seeds.  For further research have children look up the plants and their locations, perhaps placing pins on a map to designate their homes.  I would pair this title with A seed is the start (National Geographic, February 13, 2018) written by Melissa Stewart.    You will certainly want a copy of this title for your professional and personal collections.

To learn more about Robin Page and her other work, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images.  At School Library Journal, The Classroom Bookshelf, there is a fabulous post featuring this book and multiple lessons and resources.  (It's author mentions motions and creative drama also.)

Begin At The Beginning

For several weeks now whenever you walk into a grocery or home improvement store or a local nursery signs of spring are featured in displays.  Rows of packets of fruit, vegetable and flower seeds invite you with their pictures promising plentiful edibles and bouquets.  Bins full of bags of summer bulbs entice you with their colorful varieties.  If the ground and air were warmer, many would be digging in the dirt with abandon.

 Sometimes it's hard to comprehend how much bounty and beauty can come from something so small.  In A seed is the start (National Geographic, February 13, 2018) written by Melissa Stewart readers are given the inside story on seeds.  Your appreciation for them will grow as large as the results they produce.

A seed is the start of a new plant life.
Bury it in soil, and watch it grow,

     grow,

grow.

Step by step through words and a cross-section of earth we watch and understand how a planted corn seed splits, shoots a root down and a bit of green up.  That green in turn reaches for the sun until leaves unfurl soaking up the sun they seek.  From the sunlight this corn plant makes food to nourish itself.  

Plants travel to private spaces so they can grow strong.  If you've ever seen a milkweed pod open or a dandelion head shed, you know seeds have a way to fly.  Did you know a maple seed can glide the length of two American football fields?

If you look closely at the top of a poppy plant after the petals are gone the fruit sits alone.  Like a salt or pepper shaker seeds spill from its holes if breezes blow.  Have you ever wandered among the wetlands in the spring?  Marsh marigolds grow there announcing spring.  After the flowers finish blooming pods form and snap open.  Rains cause the seeds to splash into the surrounding water.

Page by page you read about seeds on the move.  They float, drift, pop, hop, creep, hook and cling.  Their specific characteristics designed according to their habitats help perpetuate their existence. If seeds can't get about through their own locomotion, they are known to hitch a ride inside or outside another living creature.  Seeds are a glorious circle of life; seed to plant, then to flower and fruit and then more seeds. 

Every time Melissa Stewart writes we readers are winners.  Her love of science and the natural world drives her curiosity and research.  When she learns she passes this on to us.  In this newest title she begins by explaining six words to readers; berry, burr, fruit, nut, seed and seedpod.  From this point her factual, fascinating story of seeds sprouts and grows.  By explaining a seed's need for space, she not only acquaints us with their methods of travel but we learn of plants throughout the world.  Some are familiar to us but others will cause us to exclaim out loud.  Here is an example of her writing style in this title.

Look at these Asian climbing gourds!

These fruits are the size of basketballs. They grow

on vines in the rain forests of Southeast Asia.

When a gourd cracks open,

hundreds of seeds take flight.  They

glide through the trees.  After a seed lands, its

wings slowly rot away.  Then a new vine sprouts.  

Realistic photographs by a variety of artists (named in the credits on the verso page) grace each page beginning with the matching dust jacket and book case.  Notice how the smaller photographs are placed in circles (like the circle of life).  This particular design is carried throughout the book.

On the page defining those initial six terms a small pictorial example is placed at the end of the phrase.  It will be interesting to see if readers can name all of them.  It also provides an impetus for further research. On many of the pages the circles provide a place for important text describing a particular image.

Shades of green and yellow with faint outlines of plants supply a textured canvas for pictures and text.  Rounded fonts in different sizes generate accents in contrast to more traditional fonts.  Font colors are yellow, white and black.  The larger words have green shadows outlining each letter.  This lettering with this particular color palette and the selected photographs create a stunning visual effect.  

One of my favorite of many photographs is for the discussion of Seeds splash.  On the background of green and yellow leaves, a large three-quarter circle extends from the lower left-hand corner of the page.  In it is a close-up of a cluster of marsh marigolds with a rushing stream blurred behind them.  To the right of this image is a smaller complete circle.  In it is a magnified group of seedpods opened and filled with tiny seeds.  (For someone who has enjoyed the beauty of marsh marigolds for decades, this is truly a gift to see.)

For a unit on seeds, spring, to celebrate Earth Day or to simply enjoy the wonder of our planet, A seed is the start written by Melissa Stewart is a book for all to enjoy.  It is certain to be popular with one-on-one sharing or with a group during story time.  I highly recommend this title for all professional and personal collections.  An index, selected sources and books and online resources for more information conclude this title. 

To learn more about Melissa Stewart, her body of work and this title, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  Melissa has created blog posts on how to use this title with grades K, 1, 2 and 3.  She promises to continue with ideas for grades 4 and 5.  This is a link to a Pinterest board which helped to inspire this title.  At Penguin Random House you can view an interior image from this book.  Here is a National Geographic Kids Educator's Guide for this title.  All of Melissa Stewart's ideas are in this single publication.   

Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to enjoy the titles selected by others participating in this week's 2018 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge. 

Small Beginnings

One of nature's many miracles is seeds.  Some of them are so small when you sow them it's like scattering sugar.  Other's need to be soaked overnight so growth is encouraged and stems will appear sooner. Many members of the gourd family are grouped together to grow in hills.  If you want a potato, plant a potato, making sure there are several "eyes" buried in the dirt.

Unless you are an avid horticulturalist finding a seed without any sort of identification is like discovering a mystery.  What Will Grow? (Bloomsbury Children's Books, February 14, 2017) written by Jennifer Ward with illustrations by Susie Ghahremani gives readers the means to crack the code of what each seed holds inside.  All the answers build toward a pleasant surprise.

ROLY, ROUND.
RAIN-SOAKED
GROUND.

WHAT WILL GROW?

For each of the twelve seeds a poetic description provides clues.  Physical characteristics may be supplied.  How the seed is sown hints at the outcome.  With a glance to the right, the reader can easily see if their guess is correct.

If the seeds are planted in a precise row, a gardener has plans for them.  If a clever woodland creature buries them, something tall and sturdy will stretch to the sky.  If currents of air spread them here, there, and seemingly everywhere, a carpet of yellow is sure to appear in the spring.

A tiny package can contain a much larger, succulent fruit which can vary in size depending on the variety.  Black and white stripes can contain giant bursts of golden yellow swaying on tall stalks.  These floating tufts of white generate food for the majestic monarch.  Without it monarchs cannot survive.

A core tossed alongside a roadway, last year's jack-o-lantern squashed to mush, or a holiday wreath left hanging a bit too long all have the potential to create something beauty and beneficial.  In every season the wonders stored inside seeds work their marvels.  We fortunate humans and other animals reap the rewards.


The melodious words written by Jennifer Ward welcome participation and speculation.  They also ask us to pause, close our eyes and visualize her depictions.   The rhythm supplied by her two lines and rhyming words at the end of each will captivate readers as they attempt to figure out the riddle.  Here is another sample passage.

OVAL, FLAT.
SOON FAT.

WHAT WILL GROW?


The first thing readers will appreciate about this book is the choice of paper for the dust jacket and interior pages.  The matte finish and heavier stock furnish us with a wonderful, tactile experience.  When opening the matching dust jacket and book case the color palette presents a soothing sense and the image, extended to portray hilly expanses, shows more sunflowers in various stages of growth.  The sunflower seeds scattered along the bottom give readers the chance to connect the one with the other.  The rabbit is the first of many animals featured on every two pages.

The opening and closing endpapers are a cool green with a pattern of seeds, each kind grouped together, across the pages.  On the verso and title pages we see a progression of growth, seeds to tall stalk, as a ladybug journeys from place to place, climbing and flying.  Rendered in gouache on wood and hand lettered by Susie Ghahremani these visuals are works of art.

Her two page illustrations, with four gatefolds, hold our gaze from left to right.  We get to see the seeds form the plants in a stunning display almost like slow motion but totally complete at the same time.  All the seasons of the year are presented in full earth-tone shades.  Most of the illustrations bring us close to the seeds, animals and the resulting plants.  We are usually viewing the picture from a perspective other than human.

The attention to detail is utterly lovely.  Susie is careful to present the correct animal in each scene.  Readers will be looking intently for a certain bug after every page turn.

One of my many favorite illustrations is for the pumpkin seeds.  The background hills are now a golden shade.  In the foreground a garden in varying hues of brown serves as a canvas for the scattered seeds, seedlings and slowly growing vines.  On the right the vines have produced blossoms and several pumpkins.  A tiny ladybug crawls on the far left.  On the right a raccoon stands eagerly looking at the pumpkins.  Its hands are brought up in front as if in anticipation of a snack.


You can't read this book only once.  I predict What Will Grow? written by Jennifer Ward with illustrations by Susie Ghahremani will have a well-loved look quickly whether it's on library, classroom or home bookshelves.  Readers will be ready to garden before they have even finished it the first time.  By the third time, they will be leaving the garage or shed with a shovel in hand. At the close of the colorful reveal, each seed in alphabetical order is explained further.  You are told when it's best to sow, the necessary steps and when it will grow.  A simple, perfect textual and visual explanation is offered for the four stages from seed to plant on the following two pages.

To learn more about Jennifer Ward and Susie Ghahremani and their other work, please follow the links attached to their names to access their respective websites.  Jennifer is interviewed at Tucson Tales.  Susie is interviewed at websites with a heart.  At the publisher's website there is a twelve-page activity guide for you to download.


Be sure to stop by Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to view the choices this week by other bloggers participating in the 2017 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.