In the Garden: Who's Been Here?

Summary: Christina and Jeremy are sent into the garden to gather vegetables for their mother. While they investigate the many things they find that don’t appear to belong in the garden such as nibbled greens, slimy streaks on the leaves, and holes in the ground; they try to figure out who might have been in the garden to make such marks. Surprisingly enough the animals that had been in the garden are not always what you would expect.

Personal Reaction: The illustrations in this book were incredible and the most impressive was the hair on both the characters and the animals. I was also surprised by the animals that the author chose to use to identify who had been in the garden. Many of the animals were not what I would have expected and show more would increase the children’s exposure to a variety of animals while also expanding their vocabulary to include a wider variety of animals found in the garden. My favorite part about this book is the way it left the question hanging allowing the students the opportunity to actually guess who had been in the garden. This was a fun book to read to the class.

Classroom extension:
1. This book could be used to introduce garden habitats.
2. This book could be an introduction to life in the garden and children could add to the story drawing pictures of what they found in the garden and identifying and drawing the animal that left the mark. show less

In the Garden: Who’s Been Here? is a great exploring book. This book illustrates what happens when a brother and sister head out to the garden. The boy and girl find various vegetables in the garden that have been altered in some way. Every time they find something they say “Who’s been here?” this is a fun repetition especially for the younger age groups. This book shows the science process skill of observation. It also displays inferences and the need for background knowledge.
I feel that this book would be appropriate for second graders through third graders. I feel that this book would be beneficial when introducing the science process skills and their importance. I think this book would do a nice job of showing children show more that you use science process skills every day, even when you don’t know you are using them. Overall, I liked this book and I think it would be beneficial to have in my classroom when introducing science process skills. show less