Jack's Garden

Jack's Garden by Henry Cole is a wonderful book about a young boy's flower garden and how it grows throughout the year. I read it each spring to my story hour children, and then we all plant sunflower seeds. As the seeds begin to grow into plants, we re-read the book and talk about what's happening. This book's beautiful illustrations do the best job I've ever seen of showing how the garden and its flowers develop through each stage from bare earth and tiny seeds to seedlings, young plants, buds, and finally blooming flowers. Extra drawings and labels in the margins identify garden tools, parts of a plant, types of seeds, insects, birds & bird eggs, and other wonderful tidbits. The cumulative text (think of "The House that Jack Built") builds up the idea of the garden developing and growing one stage at a time. I consider this one of Henry Cole's finest picture books, and that's saying a lot!

This book is outstanding! Far from being for just the pre-school/younger elementary set, it has a wealth of information which even older kids can benefit from. In addition to the text based on the House That Jack Built, it has labeled drawings of garden tools, insects in the soil, seeds, clouds,parts of plants, plants, butterflies, birds, and other insects. We (my kids ages 4 thru 10 and I) had fun pointing out the things we know and learning the ones we didn't. The illustrations are excellent- colorful and detailed. This book is a wonderful addition to homeschool unit studies on plants.

Whoever coined the proverb, "a picture is worth a thousand words" could have been talking about Jack's Garden by Henry Cole. This book is an excellent illustration of how, step by step, a garden is planted and what the seeds and living creatures do from that point on. We get to see above and below the soil as the garden progresses throughout the season. There are all the names of the plants and creatures labelled neatly next to each, on the main page and in the margins. Best of all, the classic children's poem about the house that Jack built is modified into a catchy text for each picture that makes understanding the magic of a little garden ecosystem effortless for kids as young as three years.Top notch illustrations and a unique format set this picture book apart and earned it a permanent place in my collection. I only wish I had it in hardback!

I wish this book had been available for me when I was a young child. I'm delighted to be able to give it to my son, age 3. This book shows so many things to be found in a garden - from the first scene where Jack stands shovel in hand in an empty garden through the final page where Jack is surrounded by the beautiful outcome of his work to grow a beautiful garden. Along the way we learn the names of so many creatures and gardening items and see how a garden grows. Buy this book. It's a jewel.

I'll share the review I wrote for The Home School Manual ======= Jack's Garden "This is the garden that Jack planted." The first double-spread illustration with these words shows Jack on the bare ground. Next, "This is the soil that made up the garden that Jack planted" and an underground picture of various creatures. The story repeats on each page spread adding a new line. This book is a winner. Excellent for reading practice and excellent for science with all the insects, birds, plants and so on illustrated and named.