Today is Tuesday October 15 and the weatherman is predicting snow for this Thursday! Yikes, what happened to Fall? Is there still time to plant bulbs that will bloom in the Spring? Well, weathermen have wrong before….so hopefully they are wrong this time!

Today I went to the library and checked out a couple more Lois Ehlert books. I love the style of this author, and the fact that she lives in Wisconsin makes me feel even more connected to her books. After looking over Planting a Rainbow I am even more charmed by the writing and the illustrations that she puts into her books.


The Story

This is a very simple story, of planting and seasons and how things grow. The story starts out by saying:

Every year Mom and I plant a rainbow.
In the fall we buy some bulbs and plant them in the ground.

**Jay thought that they were talking about light bulbs at first, and was so funny as he tried to figure out exactly what in the world I was talking about. He finally said “how do light bulbs grow flowers?” My daughter and I got a good laugh out of that one, as I carefully explained it to him.**

The story goes on to talk about looking at and ordering seeds from catalogs and the long wait of winter for Spring to arrive. In the Springtime it is time to go and select seedlings and to do the planting. Then it is time to watch the rainbow grow, and grow and grow! Flowers of all colors growing in the garden and picking them to bring them home.

Seasons change, and when Summer is over we have the knowledge that we can grow a rainbow again next year.


The Illustrations

While the story is a very simple one, there is a small amount of large black text to each page, the illustrations make this story come alive!

The inside front and back covers are full of beautiful bright flowers. Yellows, reds, oranges, purples and blues. All different types, shapes and sizes of flowers adorn these four pages to make them a great beginning and end of this book.

The first page with text has a white background with simple black text for the first line. One interesting thing that the illustrator did was to make the word rainbow different colors for each letter.

The next page has brown from the bottom up to about 2/3 of the page. This makes it possible to see above the earth and below it. On colored stakes are the names of the different bulbs that are planted in ground. This gives the reader the opportunity to see what the different bulbs look like, as well as how far into the ground they need to be planted.

The pages with seed packets are bright with the flowers on each packet so that you would know what the flower will look like when it is grown. Also on each packet is the name of the flower. I like this because it is very helpful when I’m reading to children for me to be able to identify the flowers, and early readers will be able to learn to read these words very easily.

As the flowers and bulbs grow, all of the color of the garden gets bigger and brighter. All of the flowers and plants are clearly marked and are really a very interesting part of the illustrations.

Finally the garden colors cover almost all of the page as the garden is in full bloom. Near the end of the book, is pages that have red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple stripes. What these stripes actually are, is growing flaps to show each of the flowers with each particular color.

The first is red with carnations, roses and tulips. When you flip the red stripe to the next page, we see orange flowers, tulips, zinnia, tiger lily and poppy’s. Then flipping the orange stripe reveals all of the yellow flowers and so on. The cut out pages get bigger and bigger revealing more and more colorful flowers on each page.



My Feelings

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the flowers and the wonderful way Ms. Ehlert has laid them out. Even though Spring and Summer are gone, and the leaves are falling, this book reminds me of the beautiful color that flowers bring into our lives and that Spring and Summer will come again. (Very quickly, I’m sure!)

I also love that each flower and bulb is labeled in large clear print. The labeling makes this book very educational to young readers, and is helpful in teaching them more about Mother Nature.

I feel this book is appropriate for children as young as two years old, because of all of the wonderful colors. While the story may not hold very young children’s attention, the color certainly will and talking about flowers and plants to even the very young is interesting to them. Children seem to have a natural kinship to nature, so that even the dandelions are beautiful to them. This book reminded me to slow down and look at the colors of the world, through a child’s eyes.


Nuts & Bolts

Planting a Rainbow is a 40 page book that was written and illustrated by Lois Ehlert in 1988 and published by Harcourt Brace & Company.

The age recommendation on this book is 4 – 8 years old. As I said even younger children will enjoy this book very much because of it’s color and beautiful drawings.

The price on this hardback book is $15.00 U.S. and in Canada $21.00. You can however, purchase this book through Amazon.com for $11.20. Several other online book stores carry this book, as well as Half.com having the paperback version for $4.24.

Other wonderful books by Lois Ehlert are Nuts to You!, Moon Rope, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf and Feathers for Lunch and many, many more.

ISBN: 0-15-262609-3







Recommended: Yes