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Summary
Summary
A bright and beautiful classic about the simple pleasures of gardening from bestselling and beloved Caldecott Honoree Lois Ehlert.
Calling all budding gardeners! What would you like to grow today? Is it green beans, or peas? Corn or carrots?
There's so much to learn in Lois Ehlert's colorful picture book about growing vegetables. First we collect the necessary tools, and don't forget the seeds. Then the magic happens: planting, weeding, harvesting, washing, chopping, cooking, and best of all--eating! There's even a recipe for vegetable soup!
Ehlert's simple cut-paper-style illustrations are perfect for even the tiniest growers. A wonderful introduction to gardening from a master storyteller.
Author Notes
Lois Ehlert was born November 9, 1934, in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and the Layton School of Art. She has also worked as an art teacher, freelance illustrator, and designer. She has created 38 books for young reader and is known for her colorful collage artwork. Her work as an author and an illustrator has appeared in countless publications and has received numerous awards and honors.
In addition to creating books, Ehlert has produced toys, games, clothes for children, posters, brochures, catalogs, and banners. She has received the Caldecott Honor Book, 1989, for Color Zoo, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year for Snowballs, the Booklist Editors' Choice for Cuckoo/Cucú: A Mexican Folktale/Un Cuento Folklórico Mexicano, the IRA Teachers' Choice and NCTE Notable Children's Trade Book in the Language Arts for Feathers for Lunch, the American Library Association Notable Children's Book and Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
The first book that she wrote and illustrated was Growing Vegetable Soup (1987). Some of her other works include Planting a Rainbow (2003), Feathers for Lunch (1996), Snowballs (1999), Leaf Man (2005), Moon Rope/ Un Lazo de Luna (2003), which is based on a Peruvian folktale, and Rrralph (2013), Rain Fish (2016), and Heart to Heart (2017).
Lois Ehlert died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on May 25, 2021. She was 86.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1 This is the boldest, brassiest garden book to hit the market, and what a delight. Intensely colored graphics capture the complete growing process from seed to cooking pot, with the focus on the plants. The unseen narrator describes the process of growing vegetable soup, from preparing the tools and digging holes for the seeds to weeding plants; picking vegetables; washing, chopping, and cooking themand finally enjoying the homemade soup while planning to grow more next year. It's a fresh presentation of the gardening cycle with a joyful conclusion, and the added attraction of an easy and tasty recipe for vegetable soup on the flyleaf. A book to help nourish healthy readers. Barbara Peklo Serling, Oneida City Schools, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The title says everything the book contains. First, there is the idea, then the actual work: tools are employed for planting seeds that grow first into sprouts, then into plants and then vegetables. The process involves water, weeding, digging up and washing; finally, there is the reward of cooking the vegetables and, yes, eating the soupthe end of the chain, at least this year. The book provides a healthy dose of completely digestible information on growing and nurturing living things; it's also a zesty introduction to vivid, abstract art. Both Ehlert's illustrations and her basic instructions shed light and color on the simple pleasures of gardening. Ages 3-8. (March) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A very simple text about planting and growing a vegetable garden is accompanied by psychedelically bright illustrations. A red watering can held by a magenta hand on a green ground a hot-orange spade against blue--these colors are painfully vivid, jumping around on the page to the point of diverting attention from any pattern or information conveyed. Information is minimal anyway--seeds are planted and grow in an unrealistic medley, and the forms are so generalized that they would be recognizable only to someone already familiar with the various plants. The book concludes with a portrait of a vegetable soup that doesn't look like something to eat (although the jacket flap provides a simple recipe a kindergarten class could make). A plausible notion for a book, shouted down by garish illustrations. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Ages 3-5. ``Dad says we are going to grow vegetable soup.'' To do that, an unseen father and child plant their seeds and sprouts, carefully tending them through the season until the harvest is ready to pick. They wash the vegetables, cut them up, and make them into ``the best soup ever.'' Bold graphics make this an eye-catcher. Illustrations are composed of simple, undelineated cutout shapes of pure, flat color. The palette is exceptionally bright: pink for a gloved hand; browns, golds, and oranges for the earth; chartreuse and other shades of green for the plants; and unexpected purple, pink, or orange backgrounds. The action is all at ground level; readers see only the garden tenders' hands. Meanwhile, a very large typeface explains what goes on in just a few sentences. Everything here is spare; nevertheless, the pictures make sure that the feeling of accomplishment in the endeavor won't be missed. A recipe for vegetable soup appears on the back cover flap in this reviewer's galley; one hopes the bound book will include the same somewhere within its pages. DMW. Vegetable gardening Fiction / Soups Fiction [CIP] 86-22812