My Garden

My Garden by Kevin Henkes
2010

     A girl helps her mother in the garden.  She waters the plants, takes out the weeds, and chases away the rabbits.  And that's fine, but if she had her own garden, things would be quite different: flowers would keep blooming, change colors, and never die. "And if you picked a flower, another one would grow right back in its place." The rabbits would be chocolate and if you planted seashells or jelly beans, they would actually grow.
     My Garden is a great read aloud.  Children and students will daydream about the endless possibilities of what they could do/grow in their own magical gardens (cool writing prompt for the classroom).  The illustrations by Henkes are vibrant and there is something dreamlike about the navy outlines and the pastel colors.  I particularly loved the final images when the girl goes out to her mother's garden at night and actually plants a seashell, which as we look at the last page, it has begun to grow roots. Just beautiful!