Gardens Galore Book List
The benefits of reading to your child are enormous! There are countless studies on how reading impacts your child’s vocabulary, language development, cognitive skills, and understanding of the world around them. To enhance your child’s play and encourage literacy, here are some of our favorite books about plants and gardening to read along with our Gardens Galore sensory kit!
Ages 0-3
Lola Plants a Garden by Anna McQuinn
Lola loves poems about plants, so she decides to plant her own garden. With the help of her parents, Lola lovingly cares for her garden as she patiently waits for her plants to grow. If you have aspiring gardeners, this is the perfect book!
Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
A garden is a wonderfully colorful place! Follow along as you plant a garden filled with bright and bold colors! This book is especially special because each plant that is (beautifully) drawn is labeled with its name. A perfect read in the springtime to teach children and parents alike the names of the plants you may see in the garden!
Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert
Gardening can bring us more than just flowers! Growing Vegetable Soup is the story of a delicious soup from seed to table. We love this book because it can spark some thoughtful conversations about where our food comes from and how each item from the garden is unique and tasty in its own way!
The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
Follow along on a sweet gardening adventure when a carrot seed is planted and the anticipation begins as it grows into a carrot! With classic illustrations and a timeless story, The Carrot Seed is sure to be a book you come back to again and again!
Rachel’s Day in the Garden by Giselle Shardlow
As Rachel explores the garden she finds lots of ways to stretch and exercise along the way. This is a great book to read when your little one is wiggly, as it provides lots of opportunities to move throughout the story. Such a sweet and unique book, this is always a favorite with children.
Thank You, Garden by Liz Garton Scanlon
This story of a rooftop community garden is filled with love and care! Thank You, Garden has thoughtful illustrations about the process of tending a garden and the bounty it gives us as its plants grow. The garden is a beautiful place filled with goodness and friendship!
Ages 4+
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner
The illustrations in this book are captivating! We often don’t think about the vast ecosystem below our feet, but Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt looks at everything under our feet that helps the garden grow.
Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
A journey through the seasons as you follow a seed on its adventure across the world to grow into a beautiful (and giant) flower. This is a great book to teach the life cycle of a plant as well as the four seasons. With Eric Carle’s signature colorful illustrations, it’s one of our favorite’s to read during spring!
Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons
Gail Gibbons does an amazing job of engaging and educating through her books. This non-fiction book has lots of interesting facts and detailed illustrations to help children learn all about the life cycle of a plant!
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
This was a book that we loved to read as children. A beautiful story about a woman who wants to make the world a more beautiful place by filling it with flowers. A captivating story that will leave you wanting to plant a bed of lupins, Miss Rumphius can’t be missed.
