Tuesday Storytime: Yardwork

Autumn is finally here!  The weather is cooling (at least sometimes) and gardens and yards are winding down for the fall and winter.  We looked back at the joys of yardwork and gardening for one last time before we turn to harvests and pumpkins and drizzly grey days.

On Meadowview Street
Henry Cole
ISBN: 9780060564827
Lush green spaces become less manicured and more wild as a young girl adds trees and a pond to her front yard.

Caroline has moved onto Meadowview Street, but there aren't any meadows - just flat green yards with no trees and no wildlife.  First she saves a few wildflowers from the mower, then a few more, then the whole yard (dad sells the lawnmower), adds a tree and some birdhouses, and finally a pond, while the neighbors peer over the fence in wonder, then slowly begin to transform their own front yards.  Sweet and fairly non-preachy sermon about the boredom of monoculture and the joys of nature.



Up, Down, and All Around
Katherine Ayres, illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott
ISBN: 9780763623784
Rhyming repetitive stanzas celebrate various garden veggies growing up, down, and around.

I really was hoping I would find another book that was actually about yards/grass/mowing/landscaping, but it was not to be.  This one was short and cute and a good length for the middle slot in today's storytime, and it was close enough to go along.   Starting with a short prep scene of hoeing and planting and watering, the story is off and running along various plants that grow UP (corn, peppers, okra) grow DOWN (carrots, potatoes, beets) or AROUND (cucumbers, green beens, tomatoes) before all of them are gathered and served for lunch.  While I like the visuals of Growing Vegetable Soup a lot better, this one is pretty catchy to read.



Stanley Mows the Lawn
Craig Frazier
ISBN: 9780811848466
Stylized ground-viewpointed abstracted visuals of grass, mowing, and human figures.

I LOVE the artwork in this book.  The story itself is a little slim, and once I can find another good grass or yard book, this one is going to move to the middle slot because it is so short and quick.  Stanley can't see his boot tops over the grass, so he breaks out the reel mower.  Up and back, up and back, straight paths mowed in the grass, until Stanley sees Hank the snake (and vice versa) and decides to make things a little more interesting for them both, turning his yard into something more resembling modern art.  Short and catchy, and the visuals are really just stunning.