jeavinl's Full Review: Lois Ehlert - Growing Vegetable Soup
It’s springtime and my daughter attended two spring-related storytimes (one about gardens and the other about frogs) last week at our local library branches. Since I like to reinforce lessons with additional books for my three-year-old, I checked out a handful of titles that were on display. Growing Vegetable Soup is my favorite of the bunch.
Growing Vegetable Soup is a picture book about a father and child who grow a garden full of vegetables to make “the best soup ever.” A recipe appears on the endpaper. The father and child are never pictured other than their gloved hands and it’s the plants and vegetables that take center stage. The book uses a minimum of words and lots of bold color to highlight the steps in growing a garden.
This is a fantastic book illustrating gardening for youngsters. My little one loved following along with the story and reading all of the labeled pictures with me. You see, in addition to the regular text, most of the illustrations are labeled. For instance, one spread shows the child’s hand holding a watering can to water the freshly planted seeds. Everything from the “water” to the “watering can” to the “tomato” plant is labeled.
The text is simple but follows along the process of growing different types of vegetables, including tomatoes, broccoli, green beans, potatoes, and cabbage. The proper tools are shown (rake, shovel, hoe, hand grubber, etc.), the different shaped and colored seeds and sprouts are shown, and the concept of progression of time is well represented by the turn of several pages (planting, watering, sunlight, and waiting for growth) and the need for additional help (using a stake, for instance, for the pea plant).
The story is simple. The child (never pictured) helps his/her father (also never pictured) plant and garden until the vegetables are fully grown. Then they pick a bit of everything, bring it home to wash, cut it up, and put it in a pot of water to boil and cook into vegetable soup. The colorful bowl on the last page makes the geometrically cut veggies look very appetizing, even for a picky eater like my daughter.
The colors in this book really pop! There is no white space on these pages. Every page is filled with bold colors, be it a red, yellow, purple, or orange background or the red and orange sun or the bright somewhat abstract-looking veggies. Still, it doesn’t make it difficult to read the black lettering of the text or decipher which vegetable is which. The main text is in large print and there’s only a phrase or two on each spread. The smaller labels aren’t distracting but are easy enough to read. Despite all of the color and text, this book reads well and isn’t cluttered.
At the library, my daughter planted a sunflower seed in a cup of soil and brought it home to watch grow. We’ve been watering it daily and watching for something to sprout up. My daughter is anxious to see something grow (it finally sprouted today!) but we’ve been reading this book in the meantime. I really think it’s helped her understand that plants don’t grow overnight and she can now relay back to me the things plants need to grow. She’s excited about gardening and wants me to plant some things outside. Talk about motivation for me!
Overall impression
What an ingenious way to get my three-year-old excited about vegetables! This book explains where vegetables come from, shows a child and father growing them, and then provides a tasty way to enjoy the fruits (or veggies) of their labor. Beautiful artwork and proper terminology make this an exceptional book to share with youngsters, especially to celebrate springtime.
Growing Vegetable Soup
Written and illustrated by Lois Ehlert
Published in 1987 by Harcourt
ISBN 0-15-232575-1
Head over to your local library and see what wonders lie in store for you and the children in your life. I found some terrific books for my little girl last time I went to our local branch. And when you do, stop by laurashrti’s National Library Week Write-off so you can share your finds with your friends on Epinions.
In brightly-colored collage illustrations, a father and child share the simple joys of planting, watering, and watching seeds grow in their garden. Th...More at HotBookSale
A fresh presentation of the gardening cycle with a joyful conclusion, and the added attraction of an easy and tasty recipe for vegetable soup on the f...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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