Growing Vegetable Soup

The title says everything the book contains. First, there is the idea, then the actual work: tools are employed for planting seeds that grow first into sprouts, then into plants and then vegetables. The process involves water, weeding, digging up and washing; finally, there is the reward of cooking the vegetables and, yes, eating the soup at the end of the chain, at least this year. The book provides a healthy dose of completely digestible information on growing and nurturing living things; it's also a zesty introduction to vivid, abstract art. Both Ehlert's illustrations and her basic instructions shed light and color on the simple pleasures of gardening. Ages 3-8. (March)