RSS
Home
A botanical ‘cycle of life’ for ages 3 to 7 – lyrical and lovely for all
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Green-thumb author Emily Goodman at the 7th Ave. Street Fair in Brooklyn -- taking kids through the cycle of plant life
Emily Goodman’s just-out first book, Planet Secrets, is going to be a success. It’s a pretty volume that teaches youngsters, in a simple, but fascinating, way about the life cycle of plants. “Wonderfully insightful” says one Amazon.com reviewer, giving it one of its two- out-of-two 5-star ratings.
The cycle is the secret: If they receive the proper amounts of water, sun and air, seeds will grow into plants. Plants produce flowers, flowers create fruit, fruit contain seeds. And the cycle can begin again – with the proper amounts of water, sun and air.
Goodman is a certified horticulturist who worked for the New York Botanical Garden. She loves gardening but had a passion for writing as well. She lives in Brooklyn.
I talked to her at Brooklyn Park Slope’s 7th Avenue Street Fair June 21, where her book was showcased at the Community Bookstore’s little pavilion.
“There are a million children’s books about planting seeds and a plant come out,” she said. “But my book doesn’t stop there. It takes the seed to plant, to flower to fruit and back to seed.
“It takes four common plants everyone knows – tomato, pea, rose, and oak, and goes through all the stages with each of them.”
Children will be fascinated to see the seeds, which don’t vary greatly in appearance, turn into such diverse plants.
In some plants, the book tells, the flower is the most important phase – such as the rose. In others, like the tomato, it’s the fruit. With the mighty oak, it’s probably the tree itself, except from a hungry squirrel’s point of view. But the cycle is the same.
Goodman asserts that even many adults won’t be familiar with all that’s in this volume aimed officially at kids 3-7. I think older children would enjoy it as well.
The color drawings are wonderfully done by Phyllis Limbacher Tildes. Older children might use them as a guide for school projects. Painters might find them good examples of style and form.
Well-known children’s publishing house Charlesbridge of Boston put Plant Secrets out for about $17 retail.
