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My Busy Green Garden

CLASSROOM GUIDE

A Cooperative Children’s Book Center Best Book of 2018

So begins this lyrical tribute to the bugs, bees, and birds that make the garden such a busy place. With each turned page, more visitors appear, and all the while the “surprise”?a chrysalis?changes unnoticed until, on the last page, a butterfly emerges and flies away across the garden’s well-tended borders. Back-of-book notes about the natural histories of the garden’s denizens complete this lovely and lively portrait of backyard nature, which is also a gentle meditation on the rewards of paying attention. A chipmunk hides on every page to divert and engage young readers.
Terry Pierce (Ridgecrest, CA)was a Montessori teacher for 22 years before writing children’s books. Her 17 books include Tae Kwon Do! (Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of 2007); Blackberry Banquet; and Mother Goose Rhymes (a 2007 AEP Distinguished Achievement Award Winner). She is an instructor in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.

Carol Schwartz (Milwaukee,WI) has illustrated more than50 picture books, including Sea Squares (an Outstanding Science Trade Book and Children’s Choice award winner), The Maiden of Northland (an Aesop Accolade List book), Thinking about Ants (an Outstanding Science Trade Book), and the “Hide and Seek Science” series. Carol teaches illustration at Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and has shared her passion for illustrating at the hundreds of elementary schools, libraries, conferences, and colleges she has visited.
“Vibrant colors and rich details.” - School Library Journal

"Meticulously realistic, lush paintings in garden-bright colors will have children poring over the pages to identify each new pollinator or creature that participates in a blooming garden. Children will be pleased to conclude that the surprise is a hanging pupa ready to open and will recognize the arrival of a butterfly. Repeated readings will be welcomed for the opportunities to look for the clever caterpillar and its changing chrysalis. A postscript outlines the natural role each living thing plays. A lovely literary and artistic rendering. ” - Kirkus Reviews