Up, Down, and Around by Katherine Ayres, illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott
A bouncy, rhyming, rhythmic picture book about planting a vegetable garden. Young readers will expand their vegetable-related vocabulary and learn how these plants grow: “Broccoli grows up./Beets grow down./Green beans wind around and around.”
A wonderful book to inspire real-life observations in your vegetable garden or community allotment. As Stanford University’s DREME Family Math’s storybook guide recommends, compare how different vegetables grow (say broccoli and carrots), and look for other opportunities to use spatial words (words that describe the location and orientation of objects).
Illustrations are watercolor and ink and show farmers and children (white), as well as a wide range of bugs.
Kirkus describes it as “inviting” and “charming” and we enthusiastically agree!
Recommended age: 2-5
