MIGUEL'S COMMUNITY GARDEN

Miguel encounters a plethora of fruits and vegetables while searching for the sunflowers that will decorate his community garden’s evening party.

In this cheerful second entry in the Where in the Garden? series, Brown-Wood first describes a sunflower’s attributes for her preschool audience: a tall, single, thick stem; yellow petals around a center with many seeds; large, pointy leaves that stick out. Readers join Miguel as he visits nine plant species, each of which shares a physical attribute with sunflowers. An apricot tree is tall but “much taller than a sunflower.” Celery “is thick in places” but has multiple stalks rather than one stem. A brief rain shower doesn’t daunt the yellow-slickered Miguel and his pet tortoise in their search. Hardy’s exuberant illustrations depict Miguel and his family, all of whom are brown-skinned, who are joined at the party by a redheaded White child using a wheelchair, a girl with Asian features, and Amara, the Black girl with twin Afro puffs from the series’ previous title. Illustrations done in Photoshop with layers of hand-painted ink and watercolor textures depict a cheery, thriving urban garden teeming with bees, ladybugs, birds, and earthworms for children to spot. Inviting, patterned endpapers dance with the fruits and veggies growing in the garden, and a recipe for sunflower seed salad rounds out the project. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

This appealing title delivers plant facts in a vibrant, harmonious setting.