Backyard Sunflower

Children's Literature - Beverly Kobrin

What do children and birds have in common? Both love sunflower seeds. Ms. King shows and tells how primary-grader Samantha plants, cultivates, harvests, and eats the seeds from her backyard sunflower patch.

Carolyn Phelan

King, author/photographer of "The Pumpkin Patch" , now takes kids to visit a sunflower garden. Readers will meet young Samantha, who puts the seeds in the earth and tends the growing plants, but the book's focus is the sunflowers themselves, from seeds to germination to the development of stems, leaves, flowers, and, finally, the harvesting of seeds for next year's planting. Fascinating full-color photographs illustrate the text. Young children may not fully comprehend the height of the full-grown plants after looking at these illustrations, but King makes growing sunflowers look so simple and satisfying that many kids will want to try it for themselves. An attractive introduction to a colorful subject.