Book Ten: Jack's Garden

Jacks Garden by Henry Cole
Publisher: Green Willow Books, New York (2005)
DRA: 16

This is a cumulative story that starts with a boy planting a garden, and then each page builds on the next. From the soil that the plants are planted to the bugs in the garden. It shows how things grow in a garden, and how gardens tie us together with nature.

I thought this was an interesting book because I have never read anything like it. I enjoyed how everything flowed together at the end. I think this would be a great piece of literature in a gardening unit or even a nature unit. The plot is very simple, and the setting never changes because it is set in Jack's garden. There also is no character development, so I had no idea who Jack was. The story shows how we connect to all things in nature through the growing process. It is a book about cause and effect (because this happened, now this is happening). Scholastic says this book is for pre-school to second grade, but I don't think I would use it earlier then kindergarten and even that might be soon because their are many concepts of print. Also, it might be hard for younger students to understand that each page is connected. I do think that the repetition of the story is great, and because of that I might use it. There is a lot of vocabulary in this story from gardening tools to types of birds, so you could use this book for many units. I would recommend this book for specific units and in a read aloud. 

I would use this book in a unit about gardens or nature, but I think I might focus on verbs and specifically ones with -ed endings. These endings are frequent and they are repeated. These could be used on a word wall or in a word sort.

Thanks for reading!

Gorms