Growing Flowers, and a Reader!

(I thought about saving the post until Earth Day, but then I thought, "Why wait?")

A few days ago I was in Other Tiger, one of the wonderful New England bookstores I work with. They had a display up for a kid's picture book that immediately grabbed my eye: The Curious Garden by Peter Brown. I started flipping through the book which tells the story of a young boy who lives in a dreary city with no gardens or trees. One day, while exploring, Liam discovers a small tree and a few flowers growing in between some elevated train tracks. Every day he waters, prunes, nurtures and even sings to the plants and they grow, filling the train tracks and beyond.

At the back of the book, a note from the author tells the story of the disused Highline elevated railway on the West Side of Manhattan that is now covered with plants. It got him wondering, "what would happen if an entire city decided to truly cooperate with nature? How would that city change? How would it all begin?"

In a truly brilliant bit of marketing, the publisher sent out packets of seeds to be given away with book purchase. After reading the book to my three-year-old I told him we were going to plant some seeds so he could take care of flowers just like Liam.

He had so much fun planting the seeds and he checks every few hours to see if they have started growing yet!

For other ideas on things to do outdoors with your kids, I highly recommend I Love Dirt!: 52 Activities to Help You and Your Kids Discover the Wonders of Nature. It's a four-seasons guide to outdoor adventures that can be done in the city or the country.
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We encourage you to write down or print out the title information and shop at your local bookstore. Titles link to LibraryThing, a social networking site that allows you to catalog your home library. LibraryThing also links to various online purchasing options. Here are the books from this post:

The Curious Garden by Peter Brown, Little, Brown hardcover

I Love Dirt! by Jennifer Ward, Shambhala trade paperback

(all information is for the U.S. editions).