Thank You, Garden

An array of people of varied skin tones and ages work and play among an urban garden’s raised beds, accompanied by fragmentary rhyming text, in this pleasant book: “Garden ready/ garden new// garden so much/ work to do!” Smiling, triangle-nosed children with dot eyes admire critters, play with hoses, and watch sunsets, grounding the metaphor in Scanlon’s loveliest line: “Garden growing like a child,/ rosy,/ leggy,/ fresh, and wild.” The book ends with an image of people gathered around a table joyfully eating salad, but the reading experience is less nourishing, with choices that sometimes skew toward the convenient: “Garden rock/ and garden water/ Garden son/ and garden daughter.” Shin’s illustrations, created with acrylic, watercolor, and photo editing software, use bright color and chunky crisp shapes to create charming garden scenes. Ages 3–7. [em](Mar.) [/em]