Anna's Garden Songs

Grade 1-3-- Fourteen poems about vegetables and fruits, told in a little girl's voice, make this poetry book unique. The book begins with the girl's ode to the beet: "I do not think I'll eat/ This beet./ Too much of it is red,/ Too much of it is head./ I do not think I'll eat/ This beet." Steele considers ten other vegetables (and two fruits) and ends with a tribute to the late summer flower, the nasturtium. While the poems are charming, it is the detailed watercolors which make the book a winner. The little girl describing her garden harvest is towheaded, bespectacled, frequently barefoot, and full of animation. Her friends are drawn with the same attention to personality. A pet rabbit appears on nearly every page and is even invited to share in the bounty of the garden. The vegetables are realistically drawn, each in the foreground as well as the background of the double-page illustrations. Teachers and parents looking for authentic descriptions of potatoes, peas, carrots, etc., will find a good source here, and children will hear some fine short poems in the bargain. --Barbara S. McGinn, Oak Hill Elementary School, Severna Park, Md .
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