Book Recommendation: A Seed is Sleepy
Winter in Maine fuels a hunger for gardening that becomes nearly all-consuming by March. This can affect children, too, and A Seed is Sleepy—by Diana Hutts Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long—can do much to alleviate it. Long’s pictures of familiar and unusual plants, from the bean to the date palm (an extinct plant brought back to life by a scientist who planted a few seeds found in an excavation) are stunning botanical illustrations and typical of Long’s ability to engage children while delighting the adults doing the reading. The narrative describes how seeds of all different kinds begin their lives: in the safety of fruit, as gynosperms (naked seeds from non-flowering plants), floating on ocean currents, and scattered by wind, animals, and even shoelaces.
