Look at Seeds and Weeds by Rena K. Kirkpatrick

This is a great informational book that gives a deeper look into seeds and all the contributing factors that affect the growth of the seed. There is a lot of fun, interesting facts. I like how at the end there was a quiz to see what you have learned. This way, if you might have missed or forgotten something you could go back and look for the answer. I actually learned a lot. I never knew the names of many of these plants such as nettles, tufted vetch, and old man’s beard. I never realized how much valuable information you could squeeze into one children’s picture book, until now. I was fascinated with the way they used the information to guide children and be safe when eating things with seeds. I think it is very important that children know the dangers of eating unknown fruits and berries. Some of them are poisonous. On one page it showed the process of growing bean seeds. This brought back a lot of memories from when I was in second grade and we did this in our science class. I remember how much fun I had after I saw it growing out of the pot. I was so excited that when I got home I wanted to plant seeds everywhere! Of course, my mom wouldn’t let me plant seeds all over the yard but she let me help her plant flowers. I remember feeling like a good helper and was proud of myself. Also, my mom was able to shave off some of the workload of planting onto me. I didn’t mind. This book brought back good memories. I like the illustrations and how they display where and how the weeds and plants grow. It gave me a real view on how big, short, thin, or wide a weed or plant can be in relation to the ground.

However, I wish they would have shown the end result during the times they did the experiments. For example, they showed the process of planting three seeds in a pot with soil and another pot with soil containing fifteen seeds. They explained that the one with many seeds will not have enough room to grow healthy. However, they didn’t show what happened after planting the seeds to prove that either pot had anything growing out of the soil. Overall, it was a lot of information which can be very useful especially in an elementary school classroom. I think a lot of young girls would like this if they dream of having their own garden one day.