Children and gardens go together like mud and knees. Kids love gardens – they love pushing tiny seeds into the soil with their fingers, chasing earthworms, picking flowers, and rolling in the grass. Gardening can be a fantastic way to get kids out of the house and into the sunshine, soaking up Vitamin D, building muscle, and learning about nature. However, there is more to gardens than just being outdoors, and the wide range of gardening books published testifies to the growing popularity of plant-based activities for kids.
If you are lucky enough to have access to the outdoors, these books are the perfect companions for some gentle garden exploration. All five books are excellent examples that highlight the many wonders the garden can hold for the young.
Written by Joanna Gaines and Kids
Illustrated by Julianna Swaney
The New York Times Bestseller We Are the Gardeners, written by and featuring the family known for their quirky homesteading lifestyle on the HGTV series Fixer-Upper, is one of the more acclaimed volumes on offer at the moment. This picture-book is both narrative and instructional: telling the story of how the Gaines family started their garden from one small potted fern, it also slips in a wealth of information about planting for light exposure, healthy soil, and hydration methods. The dreamy watercolor illustrations are both botanically accurate (down to the saddle on the earthworm’s back) and whimsical (the earthworm is also dressed as a secret agent), and the book overall is inspirational.
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Ages 4-8 | Publisher: Thomas Nelson | March 26, 2019 | ISBN-13: 978-1400314225
Written by Kirsten Bradley
Illustrated by Aitch
Easy Peasy Gardening for Kids, published by Little Gestalten, helps children to see their gardens not only as a source of personal pleasure and bounty but also as a complete eco-system full of wonderful discoveries. It is packed with projects, from keeping a wildlife diary (p. 28) to building a “bean fort” (p. 44), as well as instruction on subjects ranging from companion planting to flower anatomy.
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Ages 4-7 | Publisher: Little Gestalten | 2019 | ISBN-13: 978-3-89955-824-1
Written by Esther Coombs
Esther Coombs’ Plant, Sow, Make and Grow is more instruction based, and is packed from cover-to-cover with projects designed to help young gardeners learn the ins and outs of plant cultivation. Projects include making toilet-paper-roll seed starters (p. 7), conserving water by making a home-made drip irrigator (p. 26), and harvesting wild-flower seeds for planting on (p. 36). Coombs’ vibrant illustrations are a joy unto themselves, bringing the volume – and the garden – to life.
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Ages 4-7 | Publisher: Button Books | 2019 | ISBN-13: 978-1-78708-025-6
Written and Illustrated by Emma Giuliani
The very large, hard-cover format of Emma Giuliani’s In the Garden means that there is plenty of space for the simple, almost minimalist illustrations. On each page, lift-up flaps encourage the reader to explore the garden more deeply – one, for example, dissects a flower bulb, another invites you to explore the tools inside a garden shed, and a third peeks inside a bird feeder to help readers identify different winter-migrating birds. The striking illustrations are just detailed enough to demonstrate the wide range of processes that make a garden tick, from the stamens inside flowers that feed the bees to the many components that make up the soil the plants grow in
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Ages 5-10 | Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press | 2020 | ISBN-13: 978-1-61689-893-9
Written by Larissa Juliano
Illustrated by Francesca DeLuca
Larissa Juliano and Francesca DeLuca’s Nana’s Garden is a beautiful exploration of the way that gardens support and entwine with family relationships. The story follows the day of a young girl in her grandmother’s garden, “a special place, just for Nana, Papa, and me.” The little girl picks flowers, chases butterflies, collect pebbles, and grows tomatoes with her family. Bright, cartoon-like illustrations and a special emphasis on counting and colors make this simple story perfect for even very young readers.
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Ages 2-5 | Publisher: Clever Publishing | 2020 | ISBN-13: 978-1949998986
Header Image Credit: Magnolia
The book list 5 Gorgeous Gardening Books For Kids was curated by Dr. Jen Harrison. Discover more books like these titles by following along with our reviews and articles tagged with Nature Studies and Picture Books.