NANA'S GARDEN

An ideal day in an idealized garden with a doting grandma.

“Every Sunday, Mommy and Daddy take me to Nana’s garden,” proclaims a smiling, brown-haired child wearing turquoise boots, a yellow sundress, and a flower-adorned hat. On subsequent pages, child and blue jeans–clad grandmother, shaded by her own sun hat, gather tomatoes and basil, chase butterflies, catch bugs, pick flowers, and water plants. Though the book is not directly instructional, six colors are highlighted in colored type, and the girl counts flowers and rocks as she collects them. The child’s grandfather (gray haired but still rather young looking) is a peripheral character, glimpsed working in his workshop and helping with the watering. Illustrator De Luca’s fanciful illustrations display her animation experience, pink leaves on a willow tree edging the book toward fantasy. Caterpillars and adult insects smile throughout, even when pent-up in jars, some of which, distressingly, have no visible air holes. (Sharp-eyed readers will also note that the word “brown” is not set in colored type—a small but distracting detail.) Nana presents white, as do the child’s grandfather and father; the child’s mother and the child both have beige skin a smidge darker.

Useful for sharing with gardening grandmas but not essential.