The Horn Book Guide

EASY READERS

Holub, Joan

The Garden That We Grew

32 pp. | Viking | August, 2001 | Trade ISBN 0-670-89799-X $$13.99

(1) K-3 Viking Easy-to-Read series. Illustrated by Hiroe Nakata. This book shares the necessary qualities of a beginning reader--simplicity, repetition, predictability, and pictorial cues--with those of a successful picture book. The rhyming verse narrates a cycle of growing pumpkins, carried out entirely by happy, industrious children in the softly colored pictures. The depiction of the autonomous growers gives due respect to the burgeoning independence of young gardeners and readers alike.

Reviewer: Lauren Adams | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2001