Born to Bloom: Weeds Find a Way by Cindy Jenson-Elliott

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower—but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
--Tennyson

Cindy Jenson-Elliott is not the first poet to sing the praises of the lowly but tenacious weed, sometimes the first flower of spring, which finds a way to bloom and seed our world with green, nor is she the first to find a larger theme in their relentless will to live.

WEEDS FIND A WAY TO LIVE

WHERE OTHER PLANTS CAN'T GROW.

As her barefoot girl and her dog explore her world, she finds four dandelions and can't resist blowing their parachute seeds, sending them wind-borne into the world. As she goes through late-summer days, she and her dog help spread the seeds of the weeds they pass through, one sticking in the sole of her sneaker, several burrs clinging to her dog's fur and her clothes, to fall perhaps on a fertile spot, sleep under the snow, and sprout next spring.

Weeds fight for their rights, with hooks and thorns, with hard shells, with bitter or sticky sap that defeat their enemies and co-opt their allies into distributors. They hide inside sweet fruit and let the birds do the rest of the work, sowing and fertilizing them at the same time.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and Jenson-Elliott reminds her readers that in their way, weeds are wonders, softening bare fields, sweetening sour soil, and embellishing rocky hills with greenery and sometimes glorious flowers...

SENDING UP FLARES OF RIOTOUS RED,

EXHALING BREATH AS SWEET AS SLEEP,

UMBRELLAS OF FINEST WHITE LACE.

WEEDS FIND A WAY TO STAY.

Part nature study, part a hymn to the resolute drive to thrive in nature, Cindy Jenson-Elliot's Weeds Find a Way (Beach Lane Books, 2014), illustrated in evocative expressionistic mixed-media paintings by Carolyn Fisher, will increase the child's appreciation of the ubiquitous, plucky weed in whatever form it takes to survive, and in so doing, suggests, as did Tennyson's "all in all,"  that weeds represent the steadfast will to live found throughout nature, even among us humans.

The author adds an appendix, "Meet the Weed," which provides thumbnail color drawings and factual entries detailing the scientific name, habitat, form, and physiology of common weeds, which makes this book useful for classroom field studies and projects as well as simple backyard exploration. School Library Journal gives this one its hearty thumbs-up: "Poetic imagery describes how they are "shot out of tight, dry pods like confetti from a popped balloon" and "baking in shimmering summer heat on a white-hot sidewalk without a whisper of wind"), and the bold colors of the mixed media/digital collage illustrations do an admirable job of making the ordinary become stunning..... Expect to have readers rooting and exploring for the ubiquitous plants."

Browsing the Biosphere: The Natural World: the World in Infographics by Jon Richards

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF INFOGRAPHICS

Using icons, graphics, and pictograms, infographics visualize data and information in a whole new way!

Owlkids Books launches its new nonfiction series, The World in Infographics, with its just-published The Natural World (The World in Infographics) (Owlkids Books, 2013) in a format that maximizes interest for the elementary school reader. The editors and author Jon Richards start off with a sure-fire subject for its target readers--middle elementary students--the world of nature, in a design that will stir  inquisitiveness about the wonders of animals and plants.

Richards' design covers one facet of the biosphere in each double-page spread in this brief book, beginning with The Order of Natural Things, breaking down the kingdoms of plants and animals into their subordinate scientific hierarchies by phyla, class, order, family, genus, and species, using the "descent" of the familiar wolf as its final species. The following eleven topics include Microscopic World, Genes and Cell Division, Growing Up, Food Webs, Evolution, Fast and Slow (speeds of animals), Big and Small (sizes of plants and animals), Record Breakers, Animal Countdown (timeline of appearance of plants and animals), and Under Threat (endangered species), as well a a very helpful glossary and index.

Clearly this book is intended as an introductory browsing book for young readers interested in the natural world: each two-page subject could easily be a book in its own right, and Richards' selectivity of what facts to include under each topic is clearly intended only to pique interest and provide an framework for further study.

While the use of graphics, icons, charts, graphs, and pictograms is not new to nonfiction, author Richards and illustrator Ed Simkins make good use of this design technique, for example, in the section on maturation, the short-lived ant is shown on a continuous length-of-life line which ends for animals with the Galapagos tortoise (at 190 years) and for plants with black coral which have endured for at least 4,265 years. Food Webs shows how phytoplankton begin the process ending with tertiary consumers such as the polar bear and arctic whales and birds. Big and Small features icons representing the tallest animal (giraffe), down through the largest, the blue whale, through elephants, horses and camels, to humans. A separate comparison shows that a giant sequoia is as tall as 29 stacked elephants, and a fact book points out that the largest living organism is actually a fungus in Oregon covering 3.4 square miles. The chapter on threatened animals shows eye-catching icons side by side representing the relative number of, for example, elephants in Chad declining from 400,000 to 10,000 between 1970 and 2006.

Publishers Weekly gives The Natural World (The World in Infographics) a starred review for its inviting layout and well-chosen examples encouraging student interest in the natural sciences, saying "Richards and Simkins use bright digital graphs, charts, pictograms, and other high-impact images to explore topics related to life on Earth in this smart kickoff to a series."

What's Up? Ace Your Plant Science Project by Robert Gardner and Phyllis J. Perry

Science is the study of the things that are all around you, every day. No matter where you are or what you are doing, scientific principles are at work. You don't need special materials or equipment to be a scientist. By making careful observations and asking questions about how things work, you can begin to design experiments to investigate a variety of questions. You can do science. You probably already have but just didn't know it!

And all around us whenever we go outdoors is the wide world of plants. Resolutely growing, growing, growing almost anywhere, even in the most relentlessly urban area, plants delight us, nourish us, sometimes annoy us, and contribute to our basic need for oxygen by their very existence. Robert Gardner's and Ann Perry's Ace Your Plant Science Project: Great Science Fair Ideas (Ace Your Biology Science Project) (Enslow) is an engaging introduction to the world of plant science as well as a useful handbook for easy, inexpensive, and very educational science projects for those middle elementary years. As always, the authors begin with a brief but thorough discussion of the scientific method, followed by safety tips for the novice experimenter.

What then follows are a series of chapters organized around the basics of plant science--"Seeds and Germination," "Leaves," "Stems, Roots, and Buds," "Plant Reproduction," and "Trees," which in themselves cover most of the objectives of the elementary curriculum. Experiments are described step by step, with diagrams, maps, formulas, labelled drawings, and material lists included within the text, and most require little in the way of equipment and adult supervision, presenting ideas without condescension to the young reader, leaving room for open-ended questions to the creativity of the student.

Backed up with a book and web site bibliography and index, this entry into Enslow's notable Great Science Fair Ideas series is a useful starting point for any student to begin preparation for that science fair project sure to be in his or her future.

Groundhog Roundup II: How Groundhog's Garden Grew by Lynn Cherry

Author-illustrator Lynn Cherry, known for her notable celebration of rain forest ecology The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest, takes it down to a smaller, but equally beautiful piece of ecology, the homey vegetable garden in her How Groundhog's Garden Grew.

It's spring and Little Groundhog awakes hungry enough to make a buffet of his neighbor's garden. Squirrel points out that planting his own garden is a better plan for the future and begins to teach him the timeless tasks of the prudent gardener, gathering seeds and root vegetables, drying and saving them for the next growing season. After the two hibernate away the next winter, they get started making their garden grow, sowing seeds, setting out onions, potato eyes, carrot roots, and even perennial asparagus, providing for their future needs and preserving the environment around them.

What makes this picture book exceptional are Cherry's superb illustrations, done in realistic style with glowing colors. Double spreads of Groundhog and Squirrel in their garden alternate with smaller illustrations surrounded by incredibly realistic borders showing growing plants, from seeds to seedlings to mature, fruited plants. On the page discussing pollination another border features garden insects which are beneficial partners with the wind in aiding cultivation. Each page tells its own story, with a multitude of visual detail to be observed.

When the garden is mature, Squirrel teaches Groundhog to preserve his bounty by cooking and preserving some of the food, and the fruits of their labor are shared in a feast of thanksgiving, with the page borders showing the mature plants and their produce.

Not just a Groundhog Day story, How Groundhog's Garden Grew. is a great extension of the coming-of-spring tale, especially for those regions where February actually brings the beginning of spring planting time. The wonderful illustrations will inspire children during classroom plant cycle units, but the book offers anyone a chance to celebrate the wonder of growth and fruition.