Sunflower Seeds by Ellen Heck (Levine Querido, 48 pages, ages 4-8). A boy tells of his adventures growing sunflowers, starting when his kindergarten teacher reads a book about them near the end of the year. Each student gets three seeds: one for the birds, one for the rain, and one to grow. On the last day of school the kids take their seedlings home in paper cups. The boy puts his cups outside, and sure enough, one gets knocked over in a rainstorm and never recovers. His parents help him plant the remaining two plants in the ground. One gets nibbled on by a deer, but the last one soars to a height over the heads of the tallest humans he knows. Everyone enjoys the big yellow flowers for a few weeks until they start to droop. The family cuts them off and counts the seeds inside–over 1,000! As the boy looks forward to sharing his sunflower stories in first grade, he visits the library, and opens a new book. What will he learn about next?
I’m putting this on my list of books to read to preschoolers and kindergartners in the spring. Not only is there a lot of information, told in a story that kids will connect with, but the oil paintings of sunflowers are amazingly detailed, as you can see from the cover. I also like the message that books are gateways into learning about all sorts of interesting things. I wish there had been a little back matter with some additional information about sunflowers.
Dear Acorn (Love, Oak) by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Clarion Books, 40 pages, grades 1-4). In eight pairs of poems, two objects address each other, showing their relationship to each other while highlighting each one’s unique perspective. There’s the acorn and oak pairing of the title, as well as bubble/sky, cloud/droplets, pebble/river, brick/school, button/coat, toes/child, and sea turtle/ocean. Each letter poem is pretty short–no more than a few stanzas of brief lines–and each is accompanied by a colorful collage drawing. The final pages includes simple, specific guidelines to help kids write their own letter poems.
Two masters of their crafts–Newbery honor winner Joyce Sidman and Caldecott honor winner Melissa Sweet–team up to create an engaging set of poems written in a format that invites kids to think about writing their own pairs of letters. The poems are simple and brief to read to primary grades yet interesting enough for older kids, and the beautiful collage illustrations could also be used as a starting point to encourage creativity.