The Plant-And-Grow Project Book

Carolyn Phelan

First published in Denmark, this book sometimes sounds a bit odd, "Fill the container with water when you can see it has dwindled," and decidedly optimistic: "They [bean sprouts] taste so good they can be eaten as candy." Still, parents and teachers of preschool and primary-grade children will find it an attractive source of ideas for unusual indoor plants. Each project is explained in one or two pages that feature full-color photographs and drawings as well as explanatory text and captions. Ideas include planting scarlet runner beans in a cucumber, getting vegetable tops to sprout in dishes, making bottle gardens, and growing cotton, corn, eggplant, and wheat plants as well as orange, chestnut, mimosa, banana, and eucalyptus trees. A source for seeds would have been a helpful addition for the more exotic entries, but many of the plants can be grown from fruits and seeds readily available in grocery stores and nurseries.