Tots to Teens & in beTween

Title: The Curious Garden

Author & Illustrator: Peter Brown

Publisher: Little Brown and Company

Publication Date: 2009

Format: Hardback, 40 pages

Genre: Ghildren's book, Picture book

How I Got It: the library

Summary from book:

One day, a curious boy named Liam is out exploring his drab, gray city when he comes across a struggling garden. He decides to help the plants grow, never imagining what he is starting. As time passes, the garden takes on a life of its own and spreads across the city, changing everything in its path. Bit by bit, the city is transformed, becoming a lush green world.

I'm a fan of Peter Brown's books and The Curious Garden strengthens my fangirl tendencies. It's a sweet story told partially through the narrative and partially through wordless full page spread illustrations.

Liam lives in a pretty dreary (and polluted) city "without gardens or trees or greenery of any kind." Being a curious boy, he liked to explore, and one rainy day he decided to wander around the abandoned railway. The elevated train hadn't run for years and it was one of Liam's favorite spots. But on this particular rain day he discovered a dark stairwell that led up to the tracks. As he wandered the abandoned rail lines he saw a little spot of color. He noticed that the little plants were dying, and while he wasn't a gardener, Liam knew that he could help. There were a few mishaps he got better and better at tending his plants.

The flowers nearly drowned and he had a few

pruning problems, but the plants waited while Liam

found better ways of gardening.

As the weeks rolled by, Liam began to feel like a real gardener,

and the plants began to feel like a real garden.

Now this particular garden had miles of unused tracks to explore. The garden grew restless and wanted to explore.

The tougher weeds and the mosses moved further and further down the tracks followed by "the more delicate plants".

Over the next few months, Liam and the curious

garden explored every corner of the railway.

Courtesy of Peter Brown

Spring, summer, and fall pass and finally winter comes and snows him out of his garden. He decides to use his time learning about gardening and preparing for the coming spring. He buys books and gardening tools and is finally able to take his new equipment over to the tracks after three months of waiting.

Winter had been hard and the garden had yellowed and faded. But nature and Liam's patience and planning soon revived it. And once again the garden was ready to begin exploring. "The garden was especially curious about old, forgotten things." We see the garden leave the elevated train tracks and grow down buildings, over stop signs (Liam had to stop that), and he helped it along by gifting planters to neighbors or mini gardens to empty spots. He loved watching his garden grow in surprising ways, but "the most surprising things that popped up were the new gardeners.

Years pass and we see a grown Liam gardening with his own family, living in a city that has been completely transformed by his once small but curious garden.

Courtesy of Peter Brown

I really enjoyed this story, partially because my parents were avid gardeners. When Liam almost drowned the plants, I remember doing the same thing. His "pruning problems" reminded me of the time my mother had a heart attack because my sister had "weeded" the herb bed and managed to leave nothing but clover and dandelions. I also loved watching the garden slowly explore the city, eventually transforming it to a wonder urban green space with the help of the people. There were so many wonderful little details; simple pictures would be balanced out with full page spreads filled with whimsical rooftop and sidewalk gardens. And the fact the garden was a character with it's own a personality and an adventurous spirit was a delightful touch. Brown's storytelling style was also quite different from Children Make Terrible Pets (reviewed). In The Curious Garden, it was almost like he was whispering a bed time story filled with whimsy and fun.

To top it off, Brown includes a note at the end of the story stating that the inspiration for this story was the High Line Park in Manhattan. Once an abandoned elevated train track, it's now a city park with community programs and gardens. My students love it when stories tie in with real life and I thought this was a touch that surprise and please my kids.

Verdict:

I liked The Curious Garden and will probably end up buying this book for my own picture book collection. Brown's illustrations were stylized and fanciful and the writing was quiet and mellow. I can understand that not everyone will want to purchase this book, but I think it's a fabulous one to share with your family. Pick it up from the library and enjoy.