Sharon Lovejoy

TOADS is a beautiful entry into gardening on the coast of Maine.
It delivers all kinds of inspiration for healthy, "lazy" gardening without harmful chemicals.

Illustrations are colorful and inviting,
with fun tales about Birds, Bees, Butterflies, Dragonflies, Snakes,
Flies, Wasps, Ladybugs, Worms, Spiders, Owls, Squirrels, and Skunks!

A BLESSING OF TOADS would have rated the full 5 Stars except for the depressing "scientific" details & statistics.

Profusely illustrated with photographs and watercolour sketches, this is a beautiful book. The activities are appealing and achievable, mostly requiring only simple supplies from around the house and normal life skills to complete. Also, I want to be this grandma.

The story is narrated by a 12 year old white girl who is so abused by her single father and two brothers that she doesn't even have a name. She is just "girl." When her hateful family is out hunting one day, a runaway slave about her own age show up hoping for a bite of food. "Girl" ends up running away with Zenobia, and two become fugitives together.
The entire book is the story of their running away, making a few friends, and encountering a few enemies.
The story is well told, and gives a show more good sensation of slavery and the time persiod, and Lark (as Zenobia names "girl") and Zenobia are sympathetic, likable characters. I would have liked a little more in the way of plot development. show less

A great introduction for kids to the world of gardening, this book provides multiple aspects of gardening that can be enjoyed by both adults and kids. Categorized so that the reader can navigate to specific areas of interest, the book discusses many of the possibilities of gardening.

Reading this book I often caught myself planning my own garden. I would stop to think, 'that would be perfect on the west half of my garden!' or 'my nieces would love that!'. In particular, the section of the show more book on sunflowers sparked my interest. I have a small garden (25' x 25') that I dedicate to my nieces and nephews each summer and this book led me to an idea for what to do this year. I am going to plant a few rows of sunflowers around the perimeter of the garden and leave a small opening on one end. As the sunflowers grow, they will encapsulate the garden and the opening can serve as a doorway. The kids can use this area as their hideout and enjoy the sunflowers at the same time! I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Because gardening is a large aspect of my life, I plan on bringing my love for gardening into the classroom. A garden takes a lot of dedication and through a class garden I believe my students will learn the importance of cooperation, maintainence and hard work. This book will be within my gardening text set and I will encourage my students to pull ideas from it for our classroom garden. Collaboratively, the students will make a map of the garden they would like to develop and with permission from my principal my students will be able to put their plan into action. show less