Title: The Curious Garden (Caldecott Award Winner)
Author: Peter Brown
Illustrator: Peter Brown
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Year Published: 2009
Format: Hard Cover
Genre: Picture Book
Reading Level: Assisted Reader
Reading Interest Level: Pre-School-Elementary School
Topics: Growth and Development
Summary: The book begins with a little boy named Liam, who discovers a struggling garden and decides to take care of it. As time passes, the garden spreads throughout the dark, gray city, transforming it into a lush, green world.
This is an enchanting tale with environmental themes with illustrations that become more vibrant as the garden blooms. Redheaded Liam can also be spotted on every page, adding a clever seek-and-find element to this captivating picture book.
Extension Activity: Since this book deals with the growth and development of a garden, the extension activity would consist of the children actually planting seeds into an empty egg- carton and keeping them in the classroom to watch them grow over time. The children would then be able to incorporate this lesson into science by discussing how and what makes their little flowers grow.
