My Busy Green Garden

CCBC Choice Book 2018 : The Annual Best of the Year List of the Cooperative Children's Book Center

This is my busy green garden.

There’s a surprise
In clever disguise,
That hangs in my busy green garden.

This is a ladybug dawdling so,
Near the surprise, in clever disguise,
That hangs in my busy green garden.

This is a honeybee buzzing below
The red spotted ladybug dawdling so,
Near the surprise, in clever disguise,
That hangs in my busy green garden.

So begins this lyrical tribute to the bugs, bees, and birds that make the garden such a busy place. With each turned page, more visitors appear, and all the while the “surprise”—a chrysalis—changes unnoticed until, on the last page, a butterfly emerges and flies away across the garden’s well-tended borders. Back-of-book notes about the natural histories of the garden’s denizens complete this lovely and lively portrait of backyard nature, which is also a gentle meditation on the rewards of paying attention. A chipmunk hides on every page to divert and engage young readers.

Fountas & Pinnell Level O