Product Description

What makes Eddie's garden grow? Earth, rain, sun and all sorts of creatures, of course! Eddie's garden is magnificent, from his stringy bean house to his tall sunflowers. How Eddie's garden grows and develops is clearly told in this gentle story with lively characters and colourful illustrations. The book includes full information on growing a garden like Eddie's in a home garden or even indoors.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99855 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 40 pages

Review
The contrast between the older boy, looking out curiously at the world, manipulating and changing it, and the me-centred toddler is beautifully done... There are some useful tips for budding gardeners at the back of the book (Independent on Sunday )

Garland has done her homework, and there are hard facts to substantiate her story, woven through the text, in the detail of the warm-hearted illustrations, and in an appendix adults will find helpful in supporting their curriculum planning (Guardian )

Sarah Garland never lets her educational message get in the way of an engaging story (Nursery World )

About the Author
Sarah Garland is a much-loved author/illustrator who has published more than 40 books. The daughter of a publisher and illustrator, she trained as a typographer at the London College of Printing. She has written many books for children, and also books for adults on herbs and their uses. During her childhood in the New Forest and in recent years she has concentrated on growing a very wide variety of herbs to use in her kitchen, and to treat minor ailments. She lives in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.

Customer Reviews

lovely picture book for budding gardeners
anyone looking for a book to interest small children in gardening should look at this lovely book, which tells how a mother and child plant a garden from seed, and also gives advice about good plants to try.

Great for nuturing an interest in the outdoors
Helpful in that one of my boys is named Eddie, but nevertheless the subject matter and way the tale was told was enough to persuade my 4 yr old that gardening is quite fun after all. Very gentle humour with the toddler, Lily continually trying to eat worms and soil: so true to life!

After having read the book my 4 yr old was suddenly interested in worms and soil and digging - no other book has sparked his interest in the same way.

Really good ideas about what to plant and how (especially a bean wigwam) and notes at the end to help parents with planing a veggie plot, but also realistic in realising not every garden has a large swathe of earth that can be dug up as in Eddie's Garden.

What I really liked too was that Eddie has good ideas that his mother adopts showing a respect for the child and that they too can contribute and are not always just doing what the adults suggest.

There is quite an obvious one-parent-family slant to the book for adults, but equally the father figure may just be away at work for those who don't wish to deal on that aspect of it. My eldest certainly didn't even question it.

Lovely illustrations and a really good read. I'd say suitable for a book loving 3yr old +. My 2 yr old certainly won't sit through it, but my 4 yr old loves it.

Another good read from Sarah Garland
My two young boys LOVE Sarah Garland books, and I have searched high and low to purchase the other books she has written (sadly they are hard to find). We were then glad to find this newer story about two children and their mother starting up a small vegetable patch in their small town/suburban looking back graden. It is typical of Graland's style with interesting and conversation starting pictures. Often enough with her other books (which have very little words) I would invent longer stories interwoven with her pictures and give people names etc, here the story is written out fully. Interesting starting point for children learning about planting seeds, watching them grow, about bugs which help our plants (ie. lady birds) and bugs which don't (slugs). Story culminates with Grandad visiting and being overcome by the brilliance of their small garden and then the picnic they prepare and share with their home grown produce.

Garland's books would be ideal for single parent families as the ' father figure' is absent from all of her books that we have read.