Coming Up Next! If You Hold a Seed by Elly MacKay

IF YOU HOLD A SEED
AND MAKE A WISH...
SOMETHING CAN HAPPEN.

A seed is such a small thing, on its own in his hand it is lifeless and still. But if a small boy plants it in the ground and waits patiently, a lot can happen. In his yellow slicker with an umbrella over his head, he waits through the warm spring rain. With his head on the ground, he listens for something to happen beneath the soil.

And a small sprout appears, and soon the boy arranges a sunshade to protect the seedling from the summer sun, and waters it. barefoot, by hand.

WHEN SUMMER COMES, THERE MIGHT BE A BEE...

OR PERHAPS A BUTTERFLY.

AND THEY WILL SPREAD SOME MAGIC.

The boy waits through autumn and the snowy winter. He grows and so does his tree. In a few years, he can pitch his little tent beneath it for his first brave outdoor sleepover. But the magic continues, and one day the wish will truly come true.

THE TREE WILL HOLD YOU.

Elly MacKay's lovely If You Hold a Seed (Running Press Kids, 2013) tells the old story of planting a tree and watching it grow. The magic in this story is in MacKay's layered tissue collage illustrations, overlaid with color in which  her retro-styled designs glow with light from within with a touch of the magic she describes. The artist's final scene shows the boy, now grown up, with his own son, sharing a seat on a branch of their tree as the cycle of life goes on. This is a special lyrical look at spring magic and the wonders of trees that carries a lovely message, text and art becoming one, for the young. Publishers Weekly puts it this way: "Glowing paper dioramas are the heart and soul of MacKay's debut. . . ."

Pair this one with another delightful song of spring, Julie Fogliano's and Ellen Stead's Caldecott Medal book, And Then It's Spring (Booklist Editor's Choice. Books for Youth (Awards)). (Read my review here.)

Sounds of Spring! Have You Heard the Nesting Bird? by Rita Gray

CARDINAL WEARS A POINTY HAT.
PURDY--PURDY--PURDY

CHICKADEE IS AN ACROBAT,
CHICK--A--DEE--DEE--DEE

BUT HAVE YOU HEARD THE NESTING BIRD?

"IT DOESN'T SING, NOT EVEN A BIT!
ALL IT DOES IS SIT AND SIT."

There's something in the air, and the birds are busy announcing the coming of spring with a busy cacophony in the trees. Crows caw, woodpeckers drum, and sparrows cheep their repetitive chirp.

But a boy and a girl, out for a walk in the greening woods, notice something strange.

The only quiet one in the trees is that time-honored harbinger of spring, the robin, sitting low and silent, on her nest.

Why is that? they wonder.

But then, something big begins to happen up there in that nest. There's a cracking, breaking sound, and the robin hops up and about, excited by something going on inside. Then the kids see the robin surprisingly flying swiftly away from her nest--with something blue in her beak. And another robin suddenly flies to the nest, where there is noticeable peeping and cheeping noise to be heard.

"THE BABY BIRDS ARE HERE!"

Rita Gray's Have You Heard the Nesting Bird? (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), forthcoming today, takes two youngsters on a bird -watching walk where all the birds are telling them that spring is here--all except one. Gray's intriguing rhymes and onomatopoeic bird calls work perfectly with artist Kennard Pak's subtle watercolor illustrations. Pak keeps his palette quiet--with soft browns, grays, and greens--befitting the hushed admonition not to disturb the sitting bird.

But half the fun of the book is in Gray's appended interview with Mrs. Robin, "A Word with the Bird," as she explains that she keeps a low profile so as not to be noticed by predators, how she warms her eggs with her "brood patch" a spot on her breast that sheds its feathers so that her warm skin is in direct contact with the eggs, and how she removes the blue eggshells from the nest to keep it clean for the health of the hatchlings. In a FAQ format, readers ask Mama Robin all about egg care, just what the father robin is doing while she rests, whether they always sleep in nests, and how the parents care for fledglings even after they learn to fly on their own.

This is an exceptional book, assonant in text and enticing for the eyes, with lots of information about our feathered friends for classroom seasonal nature study units or potential beginning birders. No wonder American Library Association's Booklist calls it "A beautifully crafted, informative picture book."

Counting the Days: The Twelve Days of Springtime by Deborah Lee Rose

On the first day of springtime my teacher gave to me
A garden to water carefully.

Spring has sprung in Kindergarten, and the class follows their hopeful teacher outside for a bit of nature appreciation, beginning with a spot of gardening. Kids carrying shovels, seed packs, trowels, a watering can bigger than most of them, and a long, long water hose get their, er, feet wet in the arts of horticulture, with predictable results. In fact the kids wind up with more dirt and water than the seeds do, but it's all in good fun, and their teacher bravely forges on to the next day's challenge.

On the second day of springtime my teacher gave to me
Two turtle ponds and a garden to water carefully.

Of course, where there's water, there are many ways for kids to get wet--catching tadpoles, fishing (for sunken boots), and of course the ever-popular falling in!

But tomorrow is another day, and it's on to three seedlings to be planted, four ladybugs, and five daffodils ("like stars") to be counted. The kids get busy with their Acme Tree Planting Kit, all, including one kid's ever-present monkey doll, attired in construction paper lady-bug hats.

Of course, academics cannot be slighted in the giddiness of spring, so the sixth day of springtime brings "six signs to read (STOP, FIRE STATION, PUBLIC LIBRARY, POLICE, BOOK NOOK) on the traditional walking field trip. The fine arts can't be ignored, either, so the seventh day brings seven notes for singing (do, re, me, fa, sol, la, ti); the eighth day brings "wings for wearing" as the class dances like butterflies, bees, and dragonflies on the new grass; and the ninth day brings a field trip and "nine ducks for drawing" in an al fresco art lesson at Finkle Family Farm.

Back at school, the kids become poets, with "ten words for rhyming." Then it's back into the woods and over the creek on "eleven stones for stepping," and a return to their campus for "twelve flags for flapping." The kids celebrate their counting and the harried teacher celebrates the end of the celebration!

Carey Armstrong-Ellis' humorous cartoons of kids doing their favorite things in the balmy outdoors lend plentiful visual interest to this curriculum-related picture book. Each child in the class has his own personality--one girl draws horses, feeds horses, rides horses, and thinks about nothing but horses, while a chubby boy finds a way to chill out in every scene, and one horticulturist-to-be plants, tends, and picks her flowers in an impromptu bouquet for her long-suffering and deserving teacher. Even a friendly frog gets into the act, appearing on someone's head on every page. The Twelve Days of Springtime: A School Counting Book is a fine choice to introduce those annual classroom activities relating to the growing season.