Children's Book Review: How Groundhog's Garden Grew

My daughter, the wanna be farmer, is also very into...everything. She wants to know how the world works. To that end, she has eleventybillion books. I thought it would be fun to go through a few to give you our green thumbs up or down on a few kids' books.

Today's will be How Groundhog's Garden Grew, by Lynne Cherry.

This is a delightful book about a little groundhog that gets caught eating everybody else's hard work. Squirrel tells him to stop stealing food from others and instead of just chastising him, sets about teaching Little Groundhog how to create and tend his own garden. Squirrel teaches Little Groundhog how to select seeds, how to cut sprouting potatoes, and even what to do when the bounty is too much for Squirrel and Little Groundhog to eat themselves.

I liked this book in part because it's a delightful little story for children (and wonderfully illustrated) but everything in it is real guidance. You and your child could follow Squirrel's advice for a real garden of your own. The book even talks about things like thinning seedlings and beneficial bugs. Little Groundhog's delight in new vegetables might encourage your "little groundhog" to try a few new veggies him/herself.

We give this a green thumb's up.