Down and Dirty: There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Frog by Lucllle Colandro

THERE WAS AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED A FROG.

I DON'T KNOW WHY SHE SWALLOWED A FROG.

SHE WAS IN A FOG.

There's hardly an event on the calendar that doesn't inspire this infamous Little Old Lady to go for a gastronomical glut, so why should spring be any different?

Instead of reveling in the sounds of the first spring peepers, she eats one. As ever, however, the first course doesn't sit too well on her stomach.

Frogs don't exactly settle the tummy. They're jumpy and not that yummy. So....

THERE WAS AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED SOME DIRT.

IT DIDN'T HURT.

Does that put her off her feed? No indeed. She swallows some seeds.

If you haven't figured out where this one is going, here are a few more hints. Down the the hatch goes some rain, some sunlight, some gardening gloves, and finally ... a rake.

A RAKE?

"BURP!" THAT WAS A MISTAKE.

But everything coming up roses for a lovely spring garden, in Lucille Colandro's latest There Was Old Lady saga, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Frog! (Scholastic Press, 2015). Colandro's bouncy meter, unexpected rhymes, and sweet silliness, stirred up with just enough of the YUCK factor to keep youngsters gagging and giggling, work their magic with the help of trusty illustrator, Jared Lee, whose goofy artwork fits the bill for another of Colandro's tall tale romps through the calendar.

Time this one just right and you can cash in your coupon for the two-for-one special with Colandro's companion Easter entree', There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick!

Growing Greens: Peppa Pig and the Vegetable Garden

"WHAT HAPPENS TO SEEDS, GRANDPA?"

"THEY GROW INTO PLANTS!"

Peppa Pig and her little brother George are playing at Grandpa and Granny Pig's house when they notice that Grandpa is pulling out some tools and digging in the grass. Curious, they come over and watch as Grandpa explains that he's digging a vegetable garden and that if they plant seeds and water and weed  them, they will soon have delicious vegetables to eat.

Dig and delve, dig and delve! Kids love to dig holes, and who better to dig a garden than a family of pigs! Mummy and Daddy arrive and get into the act, too, laying out rows.  Peppa specializes in dropping the seeds into the holes they dig, and George discovers that there are some creatures already living there--a wiggly worm, which the kids have to imitate, and a snail with stalky eyes and  what looks like a basket on his back!

"MON-STA!" CRIES GEORGE.

Peppa finishes planting the seeds and Grandpa points out that the butterflies will help make the plants grow well.   But Peppa is worried.  She doesn't see anything coming up. Grandpa laughs and tells her she needs something special to be a gardener--patience!  And when a flock of birds land in the garden and start pecking around, Granny points out something else they need right away--a scarecrow--and making and dressing one is just the job for George and Peppa!

For youngsters who aren't quite sure where fruits and vegetable come from before the supermarket, Peppa Pig and the Vegetable Garden (Candlewick Press, 2014) is a spring-y entry into the concept of garden-to-table for preschoolers. Simple, stylized illustrations show Peppa and George digging, seeding, picking berries for a pie, and even offer directions for using the various veggie shapes into a dino salad with cucumber halves for jaws, just for  the salad-averse George. For fans of Peppa's television series, this easy-going entry into family backyard gardening is a sweet springtime read for planting time.

Growing: My Garden by Kevin Henkes

MY MOTHER'S GARDEN IS VERY NICE, BUT IF I HAD A GARDEN...

Grownups have learned that getting there is half the fun, but to a youngster, digging, weeding, watering, even chasing away hungry rabbits from the new lettuce is short on excitement. But if she had a garden....

An imaginative girl imagines her dream garden, one where sunflowers come up, not just a bright golden color, but in polka dots and plaid as well. A new blossom would instantly replace any she picked. Planting jellybeans would produce a huge jellybean bush, ripe for the harvest any time she wants. Her crops would be designer plants, producing buttons, seashells, and umbrellas, and birds and butterflies would fill the air with the humming of their wings. On the other hand, things she doesn't care for, like carrots, would just refuse to grow there!

And those pesky rabbits? Well, our gardening girl knows just what to do with them!

IN MY GARDEN, THE RABBITS DON'T EAT THE LETTUCE BECAUSE THE RABBITS WOULD BE CHOCOLATE, AND I WOULD EAT THEM.

Caldecott artist Kevin Henkes lays out his latest, My Garden (Greenwillow, 2010) in lusciously muted but glowing spring-like color, accented by his broad pen-and-ink line, this time executed in a dark blue which gives this book a different look from his wide black line in his Caldecott book Kitten's First Full Moon, giving the picture book reader an imaginative and sweet spring treat. "Mary, Mary, quite contrary" never had it so good.

Posy Parable: Rose's Garden by Peter H. Reynolds

Rose was a dreamer, an adventurer.

But when Rose is done with her voyages across oceans and through many lands, she sails home in her seaworthy teapot, bringing with her the seeds she has gathered from each port and place she visits.

"It's time to plant my garden," she said.

Rose sails up river into the heart of a busy seaport town, where, amid the bustle and press of many old buildings she comes upon a spot that needs her work.

There she found a dusty, forgotten stretch of earth.

"Hmmm." Rose pondered. "This little patch needs some color."

But things do not go well. A flock of hungry birds pilfer her cache of precious seeds, leaving only a few remnants scattered around. And when Rose carefully prepares the soil for these few seeds and trusts them to the ground, the rain is first too heavy and then too sparse. Dry hot summer is followed by frozen winter, and although Rose waits patiently, spring does not bring the hoped-for seedlings. Rose's hopes seem forlorn.

One day a girl approached Rose with a gift. It was a paper flower.

"I made it myself for your garden," the girl said.

Rose places the bright paper flower into the emptiness of her unrealized garden, and soon other children, each with a homemade flower, bring their creations and tell her their stories, until the barren earth is ablaze with color. Rose then hears the sound of a bee and sees that among the paper flowers is a real flower, growing from the soil she tilled so patiently. Soon living blooms crowd her garden.

Rose realized that her travels were over, and she was home. Home in this amazing garden--this splash of color in the middle of a great city.

Peter H. Reynolds' Rose's Garden (Candlewick, 2009) is an inventive parable inspired by the public greenway which grew out of the barren land emerging from the demolition of the overhead highway during Boston's "big dig." Freed from the darkness of interstate flyovers, this patch of land, now open to the sun and a view of the waters of Boston Bay, is dedicated to the memory of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. Reynolds latest is "a tribute to Rose Kennedy, a woman who planted her own perennial garden."

Peter Reynolds is noted as the illustrator of the very popular Judy Moody series and his own books, among them the best-selling Someday, Ish, and The Dot. (Irma S and James H Black Honor for Excellence in Children's Literature (Awards))

Bringing in Zucchini! Strega Nona's Harvest by Tomie dePaola

"Oh, bella luna, smile on me,
And on the seeds I sow.
And let the moonbeams shine from thee
To make my garden grow."

And now for the ingrediente segreto, Strega Nona blew three kisses to the moon.

With the aid of her helper Big Anthony and Bambalona, the baker's daughter, Strega Nona has planted her carefully saved seeds--pisello (peas), faglioli (beans), zucchino (zucchini), and the rest--but as she calls on the full moon for help, Big Anthony, always on the lookout for a bit of magic of his own, is secretly listening in.

While Strega Nona happily tills her tidily laid out garden through the growing season, her helper Big Anthony gathers some accidentally dropped seeds and plants them haphazardly in his hidden garden spot, hoping to impress the bossy Bambalona with his prowess. Scrupulously, he repeats Strega Nona's little song, this time blowing three extra kisses to the full moon for good measure.

Strega Nona's arrow-straight rows yield a molto bene harvest, which she carefully lays up for the winter, while Anthony's jumble of jungle-like growth also produces a prodigious output.

"Mamma Mia!" thought Big Anthony. "I can't let Bambalona or Strega Nona see this mess!"

Soon offerings of harvest vegetables begin to appear mysteriously each morning outside Strega Nona's door. Bewildered, Strega Nona carries the donations inside, until her small cottage becomes crowded by eggplants, zucchinis, beans, and pumpkins.

"Santo Cristo! If this keeps up, I won't have room to sleep in my little bed," worries Strega Nona.

The generous good witch packs her basket full of the bounty and sets off for the convent in the village below, where she finds out that the sisters of the convent and the villagers have been beset with a strange over-abundance of rainfall which hampered their harvest.

"Oh, grazie, Strega Nona" said the mother superior. "You must have heard our prayers. Our gardens didn't do well this season. In fact, no one's garden in the village did. We had too much rain down here, while you had lots of sun on your hill."

The mayor convenes the village for a welcome harvest feast, and Strega Nona unloads her surplus upon the grateful townspeople and with relief makes her way back up the long hill to her now pleasantly roomy cottage.

But that very night, by the light of the moon, we see the shadowy figure of Big Anthony, clandestinely delivering three more huge pumpkins to Strega Nona's doorstep.

Caldecott Award-winning author-illustrator Tomie dePaola has another winning entry in his long-running and occasionally best-selling series (see his amazing Brava, Strega Nona!: A Heartwarming Pop-Up Book), in his latest, Strega Nona's Harvest (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2009). The gentle theme of generosity and sharing is nicely set off by dePaola's funny and familiar characters and its setting in that warm and neighborly Calabrian village in Italy.

Green Time! Mortimer's First Garden by Karma Wilson

Little Mortimer Mouse looked outside.

"Brown, brown, brown," he squeaked. "Nothing but brown. Too dull, too drab, to dreary."

Mortimer longed to see something green.

Visited by the end-of-winter blahs, Mortimer consoles himself with some mousely comfort food--his last three sunflower seed. As he munches away on the first seed, he hears the people who live in his house talking excitedly.

"Children," the big woman said, "it's SPRINGTIME. What time is that?"

"Garden time!" shouted the children.

"Everybody look at your seeds," their mother says. "They are small, but imagine! We can put them in the dirt and with a little sunshine and water they will grow, grow, grow! It's a springtime miracle!"

Mortimer looks at his last sunflower seed. Could he put it in the dirt and grow lots and lots of them? Not quite believing, he decides to give it a try, planting the little seed in the sun and giving it some water.

But at first nothing seems to be happening. Then it rains all the next day, and his little garden spot is a brown, soggy mess. Mortimer's doubts grow. Should he dig it up and eat his last delicious seed or hope for the spring miracle? Finally, a sense of peace comes upon him, and he decides to trust in the miracle.

And it happens. A small sprout finally appears and grows taller daily. At last a tall yellow sunflower turns its face toward the sun, and at the end of summer, Mortimer has a harvest of many, many seeds to fill his little larder.

"My garden, my miracle! Thank you, God. And please, God, I wouldn't mind a friend to help me eat these!" says Mortimer.

Best known for her best-selling Bear Snores On series, Karma Wilson, who introduced Mortimer Mouse in her recent Mortimer's Christmas Manger, has created another story with a gentle lesson which fits right into the spring season. Ably taking over the art chores from Wilson's usual illustrator, Jane Chapman, Dan Andreason adapts his style well to this tale with pleasing springtime settings for Mortimer's gardening venture; children will enjoy spotting Mortimer's potential friend, a watching spider, who finally turns up admiring Mortie's stockpile of sunflower seeds in the final illustration. Mortimer's First Garden (Margaret K. Elderry, 2009)is a fine addition to the many great springtime gardening stories as preschoolers begin their growing season units with those brave little seedlings pushing up in styrofoam cups along the classroom windowsill.