Spotlight: I Heard it From Alice Zucchini

My dear friend Emily, who always finds the sweetest gifts...ordered me my new favorite children's book:



The illustrations by Christine Davenier and poems by Juanita Havill are so dear and lovely. I felt so happy reading this book...I can only imagine how much a child would love it. Just read the first page below:

When I Grow Up

In the still chill of a winter night
seeds on the gardener's bench
rattle their packets
with chattering.

"When I grow up,
I'm going to be..."

"The biggest watermelon."
"Greenest spinach."
"Toughest kale."
"A rutabaga round as the world."
"An everywhere zucchini vine."
"Cornstalk so tall I touch the sky."

Little seeds
with big plans,
chittering, chattering,
except for one,
not a murmur from his packet.

Hey, little seed
what about you?
What will you be
when you grow up?

In the still of the winter night:
"I'm going to be the FIRST!"

And the radish is right.

Pure children's book wonderfulness about the garden. What could make me happier?

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