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The Tiny Seed - Eric Carle
by broxi3781
I'm not quite sure why I hadn't bought this book before, as I very clearly remember a teacher reading this when I was very young, perhaps 5 years old. We then painted paper plates and pasted big yellow petals around them. But for some reason, I never got around to buying it when my son was younger. But as my boys are going through a ... stage of being fascinated by plants, I bought a couple of non fiction plant books for the oldest, and wanted something for my youngest as well. This is technically fiction, as it tells a story from the perspective of the little seed, but it does teach children about the life cycle of plants, in a very clear and easy to understand manner. I will give fair warning that this review does contain spoilers, but I think anyone can guess that the seed will turn into a flower by the picture on the front, not to mention the fact that we couldn't have the full life cycle of the plant if the seed never sprouted or grew to adulthood. There is also the slight possibility of the ending upsetting a child, and when I feel this is the case I do always give spoilers with picture books.
The book begins with a very tiny seed. It is much smaller than all the others which are being blown along by a strong wind, but still it travels on and on. Most of the seeds never reach their destination as there are many dangers to pass. One flies to high and is burned up by the heat of the sun. Others fall in places where they can not grow, such as on a mountain permanently shrouded in snow, or a dry desert, or deep ocean. The little seed survives though, waiting underground through the winter until the gentle rays of the spring time sun and the rains wake the seeds and they begin to grow into plants. But there are still dangers, and only the little tiny seed keeps growing - and growing and growing.
This book clearly shows a child how a sees needs light, warmth, water and air to grow, and then as the plant finally becomes a flower, the birds and bees visit it before it can makes seeds of its own. It does not specifically mention pollination, but if your child is old enough to understand this you can mention it if you like. The story ends with the flower's death, so some children may not like the ending. The wind tears off the flower's petals and leaves blowing them away along with a whole new batch of seeds blowing away to start the cycle all over again.
I've always assumed the little seed is a sunflower seed, as the both the seeds and the flower do look the right shape for a sunflower. The flower itself isn't the right colour, but considering that Eric Carle painted a blue horse and a purple cat in one of his books, I won't take the colour too seriously. The flower ends up far bigger than a sunflower as well, but we'll put that down to artistic license. The pictures are done in Eric Carle's usual collage style. The illustrations are bright and colourful enough to interest a very small child, and do have a very unique style which I have always liked. These books are perfect as inspiration for children's art activities, and there is a simplicity to the illustrations that makes it easy for a child to recreate many of the illustrations, such as the sun and the flowers.
I enjoyed reading this book. It brought back memories from my own childhood. This book was first published in 1970, and I believe it has been continuously in print since then. The fact that this is still one of the most commonly used books, both in schools and home education circles to teach about the seasons and the growth of plants says something for the timeless nature of this story. There is nothing in this book to date it, it could just have easily been written today.
At age 8, my oldest is getting a bit too old for this, but he did enjoy listening to it once. My four year old is very much at the right age to enjoy this, although in retrospect, I really should have bought this a couple of years ago. I think this would be an excellent story from age 2 and up. He did not particularly like the fact that the flower dies at the end, but I explained this away saying that some flowers only grow for a year and leave there seeds to make new ones. He still didn't look too pleased and asked if his flowers would die too ( we are growing sunflower seeds) so I told him, some flowers die back to their roots and come up again the next spring. This isn't entirely a lie, some flowers do lie dormant over the winter, but not sunflowers. Oh well, I shall poke enough seeds into the ground where the old ones die to make sure we get new ones in the same spot next spring. But aside from the flower dying he did enjoy the story, he liked the colourful illustrations and enjoyed seeing the little seeds sprouting into plants.
My son did already know how a seed grows, so I suppose this book wasn't really very educational in our circumstances. However his brother is home educated and he has been listening to many other books on plants recently, as well as starting to grow our own. He even mentioned as the bees came to the flower that they were pollinating it so it could make seeds. He did ask if seeds could really blow so far, over mountains, deserts and oceans and I said no. But despite not being very educational in our circumstances, it was still fun. It was the perfect book to read as we planted our seeds and a very enjoyable story. I would strongly recommend this for a child who does not know the full life cycle of plants yet, but even if they do, it is still worth reading.
In addition to the teaching the life cycle of the flower, this book does have another message. The hero of our story is the smallest of all the seeds. He is also slower than the others, and can not fly as high in the wind. But this shows that even the littlest ones can be successful, sometimes it just takes a little time for them to bloom. This makes this the perfect story, not just for springtime and planting, but also for those children who are just a little bit slower to blossom, and always feel like they are following behind their peers.
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L.A. Candy - Lauren Conrad
by jade1517
I will be honest i have never seen an episode of The Hills, not because i do not like the sound of the show, but purely because i have not got round to watching the show from the first season yet, but i stumbled across this book when i was in search of a light read for the summer. After reading quite a few reviews and liking the look of ... the cover i decided on this book.
We see two best friends Jane and Scarlett move to LA to follow their dreams; Jane has very luckily landed an internship with a famous events planner, whilst Scarlett is attending University there. They are both very excited to be living in their own small flat learning new things about the city, but nothing could have prepared them for what was about to happen. One night they are approached by a reality TV producer, who turns their lives upside down, bringing people who they would never have approached before into their lives along with a new glamour and a multitude of problems, breaking and making different aspects of the girls lives.
I absolutely loved this book i read the whole thing in two days as i could not put it down. I loved the characters and the story, and i really felt a connection with Jane as you feel sorry for her but at the same time what things to workout with Scarlett. The story really engages you and encourages you to read on, i am desperate to get the rest of the series but think it is best for my own grades to wait till the summer after my exams have been and gone, otherwise i will become addicted to the books and not focus on the exams.
I would definitely recommend giving this book a go if you like stories which include glitz and glamour, relationship hardship and of course the break ups and makeups. I bought this book of of Amazon for £5.25 so i think it is great value for money, and i cannot wait to get the rest of the series to find out how the story continues.
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