Seasonal Readings

by Dan Coleman from the Lawrence Public Library

The Tiny Seed, by Eric Carle

One of the first and best books by the legendary Eric Carle echoes the parable of the sower in the journey of a tiny seed blown in the wind. Some seeds fly too close to the sun, others freeze atop mountains or drown in the ocean, but the tiny seed keeps going until it grows into the tallest flower anyone has ever seen.

Don’t Touch That Flower, by Alice Hemming, illustrated by Nicola

Slater

The squirrel who doesn’t quite get it is back to take on spring. As he did with falling leaves in The Leaf Thief, he misinterprets all the signs of the season and tries to protect a tiny flower from the sun, rain, and bees he thinks will hurt it. Hemming and Slater’s cartoonish odes have become some of the most popular and funniest seasonal books on the shelf.

What’s Inside a Flower?, by Rachel Ignotofsky

Petals, sepals, pistils, stamens; this one has all that good stuff and more. Former Kansas Citian Rachel Ignotofsky, who launched her career as a nonfiction picture book rockstar with Women in Science and The Wondrous Workings of Planet Earth after a stint at Hallmark, sticks to the facts but makes them beautiful in her distinctive style.

A Tulip in Winter: A Story about Folk Artist Maud Lewis, by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Lauren Soloy

Nova Scotian folk artist Maud Lewis covered every surface in sight with bright paintings, often of flowers. This book tells the story of her life, which was not easy. She suffered rheumatoid arthritis and struggled to make ends meet, but her colorful art, created in defiance of pain, radiates hope.

Humongous Fungus, by Lynne Boddy, illustrated by Wenjia Tang

Why stick to flowers with so much fungus among us? This compendium of mushrooms, molds, and yeasts, published by British nonfiction king Dorling Kindersley, provides a feast for the eyes (even if you wouldn’t want to eat some of the varieties pictured). A great book to read with kids before or after taking them on a hunt for morels along the Kansas River trails.

City Beet, by Tziporah Cohen, illustrated by Udayana Lugo

How about a new symbol of spring to grow alongside seeds, flowers, and mushrooms? In this comical modern take on the Russian “enormous turnip” folktale, a young girl and her retired neighbor plant a packet of beet seeds. When one grows into a behemoth, the whole community must pull together to get it out of the ground.

Cranky Chicken, by Katherine Battersby

There are a lot of cute chicks hatching out of those eggs each spring, but let’s get real: every kid (and parent) needs to know what to do when they become cranky chickens. A friendly worm named Speedy cheers up Battersby’s antihero via comical banter a la Mo Willems’s Elephant and Piggie

Sunshine Makes the Seasons, by Franklyn M. Branley, illustrated by Michael Rex

Have this one handy in case anyone asks what spring actually is. It comes complete with a cool (and easy) science demonstration using a pencil, orange, and flashlight to explain the Earth’s tilt and orbit (which also prepares you for the months ahead, when you may need to answer why summer, fall, and winter happen, too).

Sakura’s Cherry Blossoms, by Robert Paul Weston, illustrated by Misa Saburi

This quiet tale of a young Japanese girl whose name means “cherry blossom,” and her grandmother, whom she calls Obaachan, is written in the traditional Japanese tanka poetic form. When Sakura immigrates to the United States, she misses her grandmother and the cherry blossoms of her hometown until she makes a friend. Since, as Weston writes, “watching cherry blossoms bloom is always finest with friends,” a picnic in late March/early April beneath the cherry blossoms around town may be in order. They can be found on the campus of KU in front of Strong Hall, and also in the small pocket park north of the Watkins Museum of History.

A Warbler’s Journey, by Scott Weidensaul, illustrated by Nancy Lane

Here’s another “read-and-do.” Scott Weidensaul’s books for adults on birding and bird migration are some of the best in print, and now he has written this fictionalized account of a yellow warbler’s journey from Nicaragua to Canada’s Northwest Territories. Young birders should be able to spot a yellow warbler (among other species passing through) from mid-April to mid-May in Lawrence at Burcham Park, the Rotary Arboretum, and the Baker Wetlands.

Chirp, by Mary Murphy

Author-illustrator Mary Murphy’s books feel like a hug. Her clean lines and bright colors are a perfect match for the subject at hand here: the chirping birds at the break of a new day. Murphy is a Dubliner, so there are magpies instead of crows, and the book’s robins are the English kind, but no matter the bird, because, as she writes, “We all have a song!”