Summer Reading - The Curious Garden

I've shared in a previous post how I love to theme read with my kids and even do unit studies here and there on various topics. Well one thing I do with this is read books that are seasonal. Yup, that concept can even be applied to children's books. I've been busily, in my head anyway, compiling a great list of seasonal reads for each one and hope to start creating/sharing an actual list here.

With all the buzz on the blogs about gardening I thought this next book would be a great start to my recommendations for seasonal summer reading.


The Curious Garden by Peter Brown makes a great summer read. As a gardener myself, I really appreciate this story of a young boy Liam that lives in a pretty drab world where no plants or trees grow. He's not like others, he likes to be outside, he likes to explore even in the dreary city where he lives. One day he makes a discovery. Hidden away he finds a small garden struggling to grow. He tries to save it through trial and error, as any gardener at heart would do, and finally success. The garden grows as does the interest in gardening and a city is transformed.

The illustrations are imaginative and detailed. Your young ones will delight to watch as the garden grows, wanders and sprouts up in unexpected places.