ALLIE'S GARDEN
by Sabra Chebby ; illustrated by Marla Osborn
Rhyming text and clever colorful illustrations by a mother-daughter duo feature in this delightful board book.
When dark-haired, white-skinned Allie goes into her garden one morning to harvest vegetables, she finds some creatures hiding there. Will there be any vegetables left for Allie? “I walked to my garden / where the corn grew high, / and a noisy black crow / went flying by.” Daughter Osborn’s (Hungry Henry, 2016) striking mixed-media artwork brings together three kinds of illustrations on the same page: a pen-and-ink cartoon Allie and her basket, photographs of fresh, delicious vegetables (corn, tomatoes, lettuce, and more), and expressive animals cleverly carved from vegetables. The crow is made from an eggplant, and there’s a floppy-eared bunny made from a potato, a carrot fox, and a cucumber-and–bell pepper snake. The vibrant vegetables stand out on the white background on all the pages.
Toddlers will enjoy identifying the healthy vegetables—and they may even be stirred to eat them when they appear at dinnertime.
(Board book. 2-4)