Kristi Jemtegaard
Kevin Henkes tells a simple but lyrical story…
—The Washington Post
Julie Just
Even down to the endpapers (silvery outlines of sunflowers against blue), Henkes's new book is a luminous wonder.
—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
Spring colors of lilac, daffodil yellow, pale blue, and leafy green bloom in Caldecott Medalist Henkes’s fanciful account of the great outdoors. “My mother has a garden. I’m her helper,” explains a girl, who wears a petunia-pink dress and a golden straw hat. She dutifully waters and weeds, “but if I had a garden,” she says, things would be less predictable. Gazing up at sunflowers, she giggles to imagine them colored in dots and plaids. She picks a flower and, in her perfect garden, another pops right up. Seashells and jelly beans sprout, disliked vegetables are invisible, and pests are not a problem: “the rabbits would be chocolate and I would eat them.” At this, the girl nibbles a bunny, surrounded by cocoa rabbits wearing telltale ribbons. Henkes gives the young storyteller a matter-of-fact voice and a sly sense of humor, while dewy watercolors and ink picture her reveling in a magical world of plants, birds, and butterflies. Even as the story elevates the wonders of nature into the realm of the fanciful, it reminds readers to appreciate everyday flowers and soil. Ages 2–7. (Feb.)
Kirkus Reviews
A little girl enjoys helping her mother in her garden, but she knows if she had a garden, it would be something else entirely: no weeds, ever-blooming multicolored flowers with hues she can change with just a thought, chocolate rabbits instead of pests and so on. "If I planted seashells, I'd grow seashells. / ... / Sometimes in my garden, good, unusual things would just pop up-buttons, and umbrellas and rusty old keys." With a neat, square trim and sunny, pastel palette, this intimate exploration of a child's burgeoning imagination hits every note right. Sketching his outlines with broad, blue ink strokes, Henkes modulates his watercolors beautifully from bright daylight to dreamy firefly-light. Before going in for bed, she plants a seashell-and the artist validates every child's imagination with his final image. Just plain perfect. (Picture book. 3-7)
From the Publisher
With its adroit look at a child’s colorful imagination, My Garden is as fresh and inviting as spring after winter.” — Horn Book (starred review)
“Henkes gives the young storyteller a matter-of-fact voice and a sly sense of humor, while dewy watercolors and ink picture her reveling in a magical world of plants, birds, and butterflies.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Imagination grows and spreads from the fertile pages of this book to the minds of young readers…A must for every library.” — School Library Journal (starred review)
“This intimate exploration of a child’s burgeoning imagination hits every note right…Just plain perfect.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Horn Book (starred review)
With its adroit look at a child’s colorful imagination, My Garden is as fresh and inviting as spring after winter.
Horn Book
"With its adroit look at a child’s colorful imagination, My Garden is as fresh and inviting as spring after winter."
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 2—Imagination grows and spreads from the fertile pages of this book to the minds of young readers. Henkes's familiar illustration style invites children into a most unusual garden. It never needs weeding, the flowers are ever-blooming, and colors change just by thinking of them (even into patterns). "In my garden, rabbits wouldn't eat the lettuce because the rabbits would be chocolate and I would eat them." Jelly beans would grow on bushes. Tomatoes would be the size of beach balls, but "carrots would be invisible because I don't like carrots!" Intense pastel colors and soft navy outlines bring the perfect garden to life. Colors splash across the pages, matching the enthusiasm of the text. The vibrancy and size of the artwork make this an excellent choice for groups, large or small. A must for every library.—Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OH
