  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 12/01/2016 PreS—This bucolic companion to Ward's What Will Hatch? captures the magic and excitement of planting a garden and waiting for it to bloom. In simple rhyming couplets, Ward highlights seeds of all shapes and sizes, including sunflower seeds ("Stripy black./Crunchy snack.") and dandelion seeds ("Fluffy, white./Taking flight."). Each short verse is followed by the question, "What will grow?" The sunflowers and dandelions flourish beside peas, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, pumpkins, radishes, and milkweed, along with apple, oak, and pine trees. Ghahremani's striking images, replete with light and texture, are painted with gouache on wood and feature whimsical hand-lettering. The opening pages show "roly, round" peas thriving against a background of soft greens and tans while shining raindrops fall gently to the ground. Woodland creatures like rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, birds, and even a fox appear among the verdant greenery in each spread. Four gatefold illustrations will appeal to children's sense of wonder, and informative back matter instructs aspiring gardeners on when and how to sow the showcased seeds. VERDICT Pair this tranquil snapshot of plant life with Elly MacKay's If You Hold a Seed or Julie Fogliano's And Then It's Spring, and encourage young readers to get outside to do some planting of their own.—Linda L. Walkins, Saint Joseph Preparatory High School, Boston - Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 11/15/2016 In this appealing, botanical companion book to What Will Hatch? (2013), Ward and Ghahremani explore what grows from seeds. Each double-page spread begins with a few descriptive, rhyming words on the left side, followed by the question “What will grow?” The answer appears on the right-hand page, and four of these are gatefolds opening upward, downward, or outward to reveal dramatically larger scenes. While most of the simply worded clues work well, “Flowery Fruit. / Orange Root” may confuse kids, since few would think of carrots as having flowers or fruit. Still, the downward-opening flap in this section, revealing the carrots growing below ground level, is one of the most beautiful and effective in the book. Featuring rounded, simplified botanical forms, the book’s decorative gouache paintings are playful and satisfying. The back matter includes a two-page section of how-to directions for planting the 12 seeds mentioned (acorn/oak, apple, carrot, dandelion, lettuce, milkweed, pea, pumpkin, sunflower, pine, radish, tomato) and another that shows four stages of plant growth. A satisfying, interactive picture book for reading aloud. - Copyright 2016 Booklist. Loading...
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