Because spring is so officially here, and I see gardens going in all over the place, I thought this book was apropos for today's Children's Book Monday!
On Meadowview Street
by Henry Cole
When Caroline and her parents move onto Meadowview Street, (which doesn't look like a meadow at all) they discover something in the stark, bare front yard... a wildflower! Caroline quickly builds a protective fence of sticks and string around the flower, but soon notices that when the grass grows taller, more flowers of all kinds pop up all over! Caroline's dad sells the mower and buys a big tree to shade Caroline's wildflower preserve. Together, they build birdhouses and a pond, adding rocks and and making ledges and caverns for creatures to come live in, and soon the yard is teeming with life, home to many things!
When the other neighbors see what Caroline and her family have done, inspiration moves its' way down the street, and soon, a wonderful thing happens...
Meadowview Street lives up to its' name!
We loved the simple, colorful line drawings in this book, and Eliana looked close at Caroline and her daddy building a birdhouse and said, Oh! My daddy could help me do that, couldn't he? I slipped the book to Daddy while he was home for lunch one day and watched him smile as he flipped through. (I'll take pictures, dear reader, of the birdhouse building- I promise!)
The very last pages have wonderful close-up drawings of some of the animals and insects that would be found in a habitat similar to Caroline's yard; of course, you will find yourselves lingering there, and wondering if maybe, just maybe, you took a quiet walk in your yard or the park, along the canal or the sidewalk... you might find that it is home to many things.
Try it! Oh, and happy reading!
On Meadowview Streetby Henry Cole
When Caroline and her parents move onto Meadowview Street, (which doesn't look like a meadow at all) they discover something in the stark, bare front yard... a wildflower! Caroline quickly builds a protective fence of sticks and string around the flower, but soon notices that when the grass grows taller, more flowers of all kinds pop up all over! Caroline's dad sells the mower and buys a big tree to shade Caroline's wildflower preserve. Together, they build birdhouses and a pond, adding rocks and and making ledges and caverns for creatures to come live in, and soon the yard is teeming with life, home to many things!
When the other neighbors see what Caroline and her family have done, inspiration moves its' way down the street, and soon, a wonderful thing happens...
Meadowview Street lives up to its' name!
We loved the simple, colorful line drawings in this book, and Eliana looked close at Caroline and her daddy building a birdhouse and said, Oh! My daddy could help me do that, couldn't he? I slipped the book to Daddy while he was home for lunch one day and watched him smile as he flipped through. (I'll take pictures, dear reader, of the birdhouse building- I promise!)
The very last pages have wonderful close-up drawings of some of the animals and insects that would be found in a habitat similar to Caroline's yard; of course, you will find yourselves lingering there, and wondering if maybe, just maybe, you took a quiet walk in your yard or the park, along the canal or the sidewalk... you might find that it is home to many things.
Try it! Oh, and happy reading!
3 fellow travelers shared:
That sounds like a very Spring-ish book. We just read The Gardener last night. Helped us to feel like we're not the only ones who aren't at Home (we're renters) to plant a garden...but we've gone crazy with the pots this year...we even got the Topsy Turvy Strawberries and Tomatoes :) We'll see how those turn out!
As always, thanks for sharing Elise.
~Kathi
It sounds like a delightful book Elise. I can't wait to see the pictures of the birdhouse building!!
We are going to the library tomorrow morning and I just *had* to check what book you had in store for this week. I wasn't disappointed. :-)
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