l Iove plants and books and as the days are longer and warmer I am thinking a lot about plants and books. This book Planting the Wild Garden, is by my dear friend Kathryn O. Galbraith with beautiful illustrations by Wendy Anderson Halperin. I’ll bet you think you need seed packets to plant plants. But you don’t. You’ll have to read to know how to plant the wild garden.

President Barack Obama  wrote a book that asks his daughters if he has told them about many things. He asks if her told them that they are smart?  And then he tells them about Albert Einstein “who turned the pictures in his mind into giant advances in science.” He tells them about Jackie Robinson and Neil Armstong and Georgia O’Keefe! There are short bios (really short) of each person at the end of the book. Very useful.

Everybody knows that Eric Carle invented The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Then Eric must have thought his caterpillar might be very lonely and he asked all his friends to name their favorite bugs. I think he has a lot of buggy friends because they didn’t hesitate to describe their Katydids, or Peacock Spiders, or Walking Sticks – and lots more. I personally know of children who have nibbled while reading.

Dave Eggers is one of my favorite authors, but this book is my very favorite, and I might even be weeping when I finish. And I dare you all to read The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus which ends the book without weeping. Dave asks if we know that the Statue of Liberty comes from France. And then states “This is true. This is a factual book.” It is full of facts about the building of the Statue of  Liberty and he will finally tell you why her Right Foot is important.

I’ve only given you 4 books that I love and that children love – but there are many many more. The reason I have all these books is because I have several children (all grown up now) and grandchildren, and even great-granddaughters. I also have a dear friend who is a first grade teacher who lets me come and read to  her class every Friday. Of course, now when I read  to them, I’m looking at them through  the computer.

I will be so happy when we can read outdoors and look at the pictures closely and find surprises in some of those pictures.  Let us all visualize Reading Outdoors.