March is Reading Month: Stories with plant and garden themes
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EmailMarch is a perfect time to share the love of gardening with kids through books.
National Reading Month was established in 1994 to honor Dr. Seuss’s birthday on March 2. The month-long celebration promotes the importance of reading. Kids across Michigan and the nation are reading, reading, reading. Some of the reading comes with rewards like trips to a baseball game, a class pizza party, or any number of activities kids would enjoy. Classrooms may have guest readers come in to read to students. Schools may sponsor pajama parties in the evenings to encourage families to read together. With spring on the way, all this reading is the perfect time to share the love of plants and gardening with kids through books!
You may already have a favorite gardening book to share, but if you don’t, here are a few suggestions from Michigan State University Extension.
- “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. A classic for all young children, the hungry caterpillar eats his way through a variety of fruits. He then overeats junk food only to get sick. He finally eats lots of greens and feels better only to fall asleep and wake up as a beautiful butterfly.
- “Tops and Bottoms” adapted by Janet Stevens. This story is adapted from European folklore and American slave stories of the south. Bear is very rich and owns lots of land, but he is very lazy. Hare has nothing but a very hungry family, but Hare is very smart and he tricks Bear and ends up with a great harvest for his family.
- “Oliver’s Vegetables” by Vivian French. Oliver’s grandfather lives on a farm and grows a large vegetable garden. However, Oliver does not like vegetables. In his search for potatoes to make French fries, Oliver finds other vegetables. Finally, Oliver finds the potatoes and gets to enjoy the French fries but in the process learns that other vegetables are tasty too.
- “Cook-A-Doodle-Doo!” by Janet Stevens and Susan Steven Crummel. Written like “The Little Red Hen” with a twist, the big brown rooster makes a strawberry shortcake using his grandmother’s recipe. This is fun to read, has great sidebar cooking tips and a recipe for strawberry shortcake is included (not gardening, but a great book for kids).
A fun way to celebrate National Reading Month with these books is to read the gardening book to classrooms and then pass out seeds to the students. This can be done at home, a local preschool, school or library group. It’s not too late. Consider reaching out to your local school and reading to a classroom or two. Many teachers would welcome a guest reader and fit it into their schedule. If not in March, anytime is a great time to read to kids, and reading a gardening book to kids is a bonus!
