Horticulturalist and author, Emily Goodman, introduces children to plant growth stages by focusing on the most observable elements of the growth process – seeds, plants, flowers, and fruit. Goodman leads children through a logical progression of plant growth stages and emphasizes the need for soil, water, sunlight, and air during each stage.
Goodman cleverly links each growth stage to plants with which most children are already familiar. She draws on childrens’ prior knowledge of roses, oaks, peas, and tomatoes to tell her story. Children are presented with the seeds of these plants at the beginning of the book and are encouraged to match each seed to their respective parent plant. Goodman then teaches children how seeds become plants, how plants produce flowers, how flowers become fruit, and how fruit are nature’s seed packets. She then reviews each growth stage and describes how these stages are best observed in roses, oaks, peas, and tomatoes.
Plant Secrets is a wonderful introduction to how plants work and is written for children ages 4-7. Accompanying Goodman’s lessons about plant growth are colorful illustrations of fruit, flowers, leaves, plants, and seeds by illustrator, Phyllis Limbacher Tildes. All illustrations were painted with gouache on 4-ply Strathmore Bristol 500 paper.
Plant Secrets is available at ArtPlantae Books ($7.95).
Adrian Bell describes the processes behind plant morphology in the new edition of Plant Form: An Illustrated Guide to Flowering Plant Morphology. Written for amateur botanists and plant enthusiasts, this book is an excellent reference containing bite-sized morsels of information. Author/botanist Adrian Bell and illustrator, Alan Bryan, combine interesting and informative text with detailed pen-&-ink illustrations to provide insight about the following topics:
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