LET'S GROW VEGETABLES!

A board book with movable parts, especially for little gardeners.

Equipped with a built-in handle, the book’s sturdy pages open top to bottom to display a vertically oriented spread depicting an up-close view of soil being readied for planting. Tabs push and pull to reveal a garden claw (labeled on the page) moving through the dirt, and then seeds in die-cut holes appear in another area. There are no human characters in the book, which underscores the interactivity demanded of the reader-as-gardener, but worms, bees, ladybugs, birds, butterflies, and a bunny enliven the spreads. Flaps and other movable parts on ensuing pages allow readers to water plants and to make them seem to grow as well as simulating other gardening activities such as staking tomato plants and weeding and thinning plots. The culminating spread moves from the garden into the house, where vegetables are peeled and shelled to be put into a cooking pot, and the final picture depicts a compost bin for the resulting scraps that will break down for use in the garden. Most parts of the book are impressively durable, and the bold illustrations and inviting interactivity successfully present gardening as the physical, rewarding activity it can be.

A movable feast of a board book.