Mary Peterson

Snail lived in a bucket, and never would have left if he wasn't unceremoniously dumped out. Snail's friend Ladybug has been urging him all along to explore the rest of the world, so now's the time! There are all kinds of creatures to meet and things to eat in the garden - especially strawberries!

This is a bright, fun book, more engaging than many others at this level. Narrative text works in tandem with dialogue in speech bubbles.

Most all of us have desired to plant an apple or orange or peach seed from a delicious piece of fruit we've eaten and grow our own delicious fruit. The same is true for young Bobbi - an active, curious, young farmer's daughter. She's enjoyed her apple and wants to grow more just like it!

She approaches her Grandpa on the family farm and asks him to help her plant her apple seed so she can grow her own apples and even make delicious applesauce. Grandpa proceeds to tell her that seeds don't show more usually grow into trees that bear the same type of fruit. He then shows her how to graft a branch onto another "basic" apple tree and get the type of apple she desires.

This is basic tree grafting and doesn't get into the genetics of plants and how to propagate new species, etc. It is simple grafting and growing. And it is such a sweet family story of gentle education and on-hand learning. Not everyone has the opportunity propagate their own fruit and grow it, but for those who do it surely gives a grand sense of accomplishment and a reaping of delicious benefits.

This is another of Feeding Minds Press children's books that I absolutely love.

I received a complimentary copy to facilitate a review. Opinions are mine, alone and are freely given. show less

The piggies take a madcap dash around the farm. The text emphasizes prepositions and relational words with support from the illustrations. The text did feel like a few long run-on sentences that have some internal rhymes and alliteration, but didn't feel like they had a natural rhythm for reading aloud and turning pages. I also just noticed that the flap copy talks about mama pig napping, which I didn't catch since she's referenced only in the illustration on the title page and on the last page.

This is a short, heavily illustrated chapter book from the Aladdin Pix line. I believe most of these titles are now being offered in collections - this one can be purchased in a bind-up with the sequel, Snail finds a home. The description says "a new line of illustrated chapter books" but this was originally published in 2016, so I think they moved on to other things when they didn't get as much response as Scholastic's Branches series.

In Snail has lunch, Snail, a blue-shelled creature with show more long stalks and cartoon eyes, lives in a rusty bucket. He likes it there and refuses to move or explore elsewhere, no matter how much his friend Ladybug tries to coax him out. When the farmer walks off with Snail's rusty bucket, he is forced to explore and finds himself in the wonderful garden Ladybug told him about. Ladybug is there as well and she introduces Snail to new friends, tastes, smells, and ideas. Will Snail find a new home or will he return to his old bucket?

The art is created digitally and is bright, cheerful cartoons. There's not much detail and the simple shapes of the plants, creatures, and farmer are set against a white background. The text is a smaller, lighter font that can sometimes be hard to discern against the bland backgrounds and there are also additional speech bubbles.

I can see why this never took off - it just doesn't have the appeal and layout of Scholastic's Branches series. It's a cute story, but without much substance and the art isn't particularly memorable.

Verdict: If you are in need of more easy chapter books, it's an ok additional purchase and the new bind-ups are available in prebound. However, if you just want some gentle garden stories for young readers, Poppy and Sam by Cathon is a more attractive series.

ISBN: 9781481453028; Published 2016 by Aladdin; Borrowed from another library in my consortium show less