Zinnia's Flower Garden

by: Monica Wellington

Published by: Puffin Books

Reviewed by Sarah van Ingen

Monica Wellington, established author-illustrator has created another gem of a book in Zinnia’s Flower Garden. This children’s book chronicles a year in the life of a little girl’s flower garden. Written for ages five and up, this book will have strong appeal for the budding green thumbs in your life. Several areas in this book are exceptional.

First, the language is beautiful! Children’s books are known for their simple speech. While this book is easily understandable, Monica Wellington has created a story that sounds as pleasant as a flower garden is pretty. If you listen hard enough, you will surely hear some poetic devices beneath this lovely prose.

Second, the content of this book is unexpectedly rich. Zinnia’s Flower Garden isn’t just a story about a garden. It’s also a child’s instruction manual to creating such a garden. This book would be a great introduction to a gardening project with the little one in your life. While the storyline talks about creating a garden, the illustrations also include descriptions of cloud types, stages of germination, the life cycle of a butterfly, and a detailed description of the parts of a flower (we’re talking stamen, pistil, stigma, etc.). Even a science teacher would be impressed by the amount of information contained in the illustrations of this book.

Overall, I found the visual appeal of this book to be mixed. The illustration is achieved by a collage of sorts with fabrics, photographs, and paper painted with gouche. While I loved the photographs, I found the painting to be over-simplistic and rather unappealing. However, this is actually a minor drawback as the book is rich in so many other ways.

Armchair Interviews says: Zinnia’s Flower Garden is a book that can be brought out spring after spring—inspiring the next generation of gardeners!

Author’s Web site: http://www.MonicaWellington.com