The Enchanted Gardening Book

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5Herck employs a magical, fanciful air throughout this slim volume and urges readers to "change the future of the natural world" by creating a doll garden, miniature rain forest (terrarium), secret garden, Japanese rock garden, or butterfly garden. Instructions are also given for using the flowers (home grown or store bought) to make gifts. This is not gardening on the cheap or for the beginnerchildren are advised to play it safe and buy seedlings rather than seeds and some plans are rather ambitiousminiature rose bushes for novice indoor gardeners? Graves's colorful illustrations are wonderful; a profusion of flowers and plants frames each page and one is almost tempted to try to sniff the endpapers for fragrant aromas. However, they are mostly decorative, as the different types of flora are rarely identified. Less whimsy, but a lot more practical information can be found for the youngest in Angela Wilkes's My First Garden Book (Knopf, 1992). For the more experienced, Diane Rhoades's Garden Crafts for Kids (Sterling, 1995) is a joyful compilation of hands-on gardening know-how, recipes, crafts, experiments, etc.Marilyn Payne Phillips, University City Public Library, MO