A Glorious Garden: Books: Fiction

When a very lonely firefly goes out into the night searching for other fireflies, it sees a lantern, a candle, and the eyes of a dog, cat, and owl all glowing in the darkness. It even sees a surprise celebration of light. But it is not until it discovers other fireflies that it finds exactly what it's looking for.

It's the Grouchy Ladybug's 20th birthday. The Grouchy Ladybug is bigger and brigher, as irascible but irresistable as ever and will surely delight new generations of readers, as well as her devoted fans of all ages. Happy Birthday, Grouchy Ladybug!

Find out all you ever wanted to know about insects when the Cat and company get an up-close view of life as a bug. Kids will learn how insects -- from the spittlebug to the honeybee to the moth -- see, smell, communicate, and pollinate, as well as sometimes pester and amaze and generally make life better for us humans. Catch the bug buzz with the Cat in the Hat and all his friends!

With a little help from the Cat in the Hat, Sally and Dick observe a small miracle in their own backyard; the metamorphosis of an egg into a caterpillar into a chrysalis into a bright new butterfly! Along the way, beginning readers will find out how butterflies see thousands of images at once, drink nectar from flowers, avoid predators, and can be identified by size, shape, and color. Readers will also follow the amazing migration of millions of monarchs.

Children who love to track ants wherever they wander will enjoy this inside look at the everyday life of this fascinating insect, as they explore the similarities and differences to themselves.

Did you know that when a spider's web is damaged, a spider will often eat the remaining silk before making a new one? Young children will make many amazing discoveries about spiders in this captivating account.

A young child relates in ten simple sentences the yearly cycle and process of planning, planting, and picking flowers in a garden. Mother and child plant bulbs in fall, order seeds from catalogs in winter, eagerly anticipate the first shoots of spring, select seedlings in summer, "and watch the rainbow grow,'' reveling in the opulence of color.

Dad says we are going to grow vegetable soup.So begins Lois Ehlet's bright, bold picture book about vegetable gardening for the very young. The necessary tools are pictured and labeled, as are the seeds (green bean, pea, corn, zucchini squash, and carrot). Then the real gardening happens . . . planting, weeding, harvesting, washing, chopping, and cooking! In the end? It was the best soup ever.

Who knew there were so many different kinds of vegetables? From glossy red peppers to lush, leafy greens to plump orange pumpkins, vegetables are explored in depth in this fascinating picture book that clearly explains the many vegetable varieties, how they are grown, and why they are so good for us to eat.

"Building on a rhyme that will be familiar to many children, author-illustrator Cole creates an enticing guide to creating a garden. 'This is the garden that Jack planted...' The final illustration presents a satisfied-looking boy surrounded by a lush, bird-filled flower garden.

While stopping to admire some of the world's most amazing trees, the Cat and Co. teach beginning readers how to identify different species from the shape of their crowns, leaves, lobes, seeds, bark, and fruit. Kids will learn about many trees common to North America.

WHICH CAME FIRST? The chicken or the egg? Simple die-cuts magically present transformation - from seed to flower, tadpole to frog, caterpillar to butterfly. Seed becomes flower, paint becomes picture, word becomes story - and the commonplace becomes extraordinary as children look through and turn the pages of this novel and winning book.

The girl in this book grows chocolate rabbits, tomatoes as big as beach balls, flowers that change color, and seashells in her garden. How does your garden grow?

Adorable book about a group of students who make gifts out of flowers for their teacher, Mrs. Falepau, whom them dearly love.

Enjoy the classic, complete collection of Cicely Mary Barker's original Flower Fairies books in this brand-new edition. The interior still includes all of the well-loved illustrations and poems from Barker's eight original books, as well as a selection of fairy rhymes.

Eric Carlee's classic story of the life cycle of a flower is told through the adventures of a tiny seed. This mini-book includes a piece of detachable seed-embedded paper housed on the inside front cover. Readers can plant the entire piece of paper and watch as their very own tiny seeds grow into beautiful wildflowers.

With the able assistance of Thing 1 and Thing 2 -- and a fleet of Rube Goldbergian vehicles -- the Cat in the Hat examines the various parts of plants, seeds, and flowers; basic photosynthesis and pollination; and seed dispersal.

The Cat and company travel by hot air balloon up and into various weather phenomena including rain, snow, thunder, tornadoes, and (yikes!) even hurricanes! Along the way they learn about thermometers, anemometers, wind vanes, cloud formations, humidity, fog, smog, weather folklore, and how to stay safe in lightning.

Wind Have you ever felt the wind tickle your face or heard it whistle through your window? Did you know that some wind travels faster than a car? Read inside to find out more about what causes wind, and learn how to make your own weather vane! Have you ever felt the wind tickle your face or heard it whistle through your window? Did you know that some wind travels faster than a car? Air is always moving. We can't see air moving, though we can watch it push clouds across the sky, or shake the leaves of a tree. We call moving air the wind. In this enlarged edition, find out about the wind - what causes it, how it can be used to help us, and how it affects the weather.

Accompanied by NASA photographs and Dorros's colorful, lively drawings, the text explains the Earth's rotation in clear and simple terms. An experiment using a lamp as the ‘sun' further clarifies the principles introduced.

The sun shines down on us, giving warmth and light. But did you know that the sun also makes the seasons? As the earth makes one complete rotation around the sun every year, the seasons on the earth change -- from winter to spring to summer to fall and back to winter again. Find out how the light from the sun affects life on the earth for all living things in this look at the only star in our solar system.