Translated by Laura Watkinson.

Published by Little Island Books, 2020.

In the Garden is a gorgeous picture book that depicts the changes in a vegetable garden from month to month. There’s a richly coloured double page spread for each month and a short line of text. A young family tends to the garden and we watch as it changes from a sleepy January garden to one in full bloom before the seasons change again and it’s time for harvest and another winter.

It’s such a terrific book for showing the passing of the seasons. I also love how children can learn about how a garden grows. They’ll see seeds being sown in the greenhouse and then later, when they’ve sprouted, getting planted into the ground – sometimes under cloche covers or tunnels. As the months get warmer, the garden comes into flower and the vegetable plants grow quickly and are soon ready to eat.

There are juicy raspberries and strawberries to pick and enjoy too. By August, the garden resembles a jungle! Autumn means it’s time to pick the apples and harvest the pumpkins and the last of the vegetables.

Everything looks so appetising. The illustrations are a delight – so vibrant and cheerful. I could quite happily frame them and hang them on my wall. The rich colour palette is a joy. The pictures are full of life: plants growing, puppies playing, birds and butterflies flying.

In the Garden is a beautiful celebration of nature and the cycle of life.

Rating: 💙💙💙💙💙

Suitable for children aged 3+

Thank you to Little Island Books for sending me this book to review.