10 Diverse Picture Books about Gardens, Community, and Kindness

Please welcome my guest author, Erin Dealey! Her list includes diverse picture books about gardens, community, and kindness, all wonderful things to consider this winter. Her newest book is Just Flowers, and it releases on March 15, 2024, just in time for spring!

Now is a good time to dream about gardens, especially for me in the Northeast. Seed catalogs contain the promise of bounty and new things to try. I can’t wait for the first bulbs to come up to signal the warmer weather!

We are giving away either an Ask Me Anything with Erin Dealey OR a signed copy of Just Flowers. To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter at the bottom.

10 Diverse Picture Books about Gardens, Community, and Kindness

Just Flowers by Erin Dealey, illustrated by Kate Cosgrove

A grumpy neighbor + a budding botanist named Izzy + flowers—LOTS of flowers = a community that blossoms from Izzy’s acts of kindness. (The bees and butterflies are happy too.). Backmatter is a seek-and-find list of the flowers in the book. [picture book, ages 5 and up]

It comes out on March 15, 2024, but is available for pre-order now.

Oscar’s Tower of Flowers by Lauren Tobia

In this sweet wordless picture book, Oscar and Nana plant some seeds and care for them while his Mum is away. Before long, Nana’s high-rise apartment is overflowing with plants and flowers! What a great way to talk to young readers about kindness as Oscar decides to share their plants and flowers with Nana’s friends and neighbors. [picture book, ages 2 and up]

Green Green by Marie Lamba and Baldev Lamba, illustrated by Sonia Sanchez

In this rhyming community garden story, children clean up a deserted lot found between the concrete buildings and soon their garden brings the whole neighborhood together. I love that the backmatter shows how bees and butterflies benefit too. [picture book, ages 2 and up]

The Bear’s Garden by Marcie Colleen, illustrated by Alison Oliver

This book, inspired by a true story of a community garden in Brooklyn, is about a young girl who believes “the city was a place to grow, a place to play, a place to love.” Young readers will feel the kindness as her stuffed bear and the community come together to help her hopes and dreams become a reality. [picture book, ages 3 and up]

The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

I first heard of this book at a writer’s conference when Peter Brown shared how the real-life revitalization of the Highline Railway on the west side of Manhattan inspired Liam’s discovery and repurposing of the elevated tracks of an old railway.  I love how Liam learns to be a gardener, and the garden expands down the tracks. In my mind, Liam is reading a botany book (like Izzy!) during the winter. And I love it when Spring brings new surprises: new plants and new gardeners to spread the joy! [picture book, ages 3 and up]

A Good Deed Can Grow by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, illustrated by Holly Hatam

The gorgeous art in this book is perfectly matched with the lyrical examples of children sharing good deeds and kindness throughout their town, including their community garden. I love that the last page asks: “What good will you grow today?” [picture book, ages 4 and up]

In Our Garden by Pat Zietlow Miller, illustrated by Melissa Crowton

When Millie moves to a new city, in America, far away from her old home, she dreams of a way out of her grey feelings. I love this uplifting book and the way Millie and her classmates learn it takes hard work and patience to create the colorful garden on the roof of their school. I love it when Millie’s visions of “what could be” come true and how the bite of a newly-grown carrot tastes like home. [picture book, ages 3 and up]

Just a Worm by Marie Boyd

First of all, Marie Boyd illustrated her debut picture book by quilling, and it’s amazing. This is a different take on community with a worm traveling through the garden, asking his friends if they can help him be more than “just a worm.” Readers learn what each of them contributes to the garden and our environment, as Worm’s friends bring up the cool things only he can do. A great prompt for celebrating the strengths and uniqueness in others and discovering them in ourselves. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

Harlem Grown by Tony Hillery, illustrated by Jessie Hartland

I love that the author, “Mr. Tony” based this book on the true story of creating a garden from an empty “haunted” lot in Harlem, with the proceeds going to the garden itself. I love that Mr. Tony was volunteering at the school across the street when he got the idea for the school garden. I love the lively art and text that tells the story through Nevaeh’s perspective. The visuals alone show how the community worked together to make it happen. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

The Gardener by Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small

This beautiful Caldecott honor book is told in letters from a young girl named Lydia Grace, whose determination reminds me a lot of Izzy from my book, Just Flowers. In some ways, it’s a historical picture book, set in 1935, when Lydia Grace goes to live with her not-very-smiley uncle in the city until her father can find work. When she isn’t working in the bakery, Lydia Grace plants the seeds she brought from home, and the flowers new friends give her to create a surprise that will surely make Uncle Jim smile. (No spoilers!) [picture book, ages 5 and up]

You Choose Giveaway: Signed Picture Book Just Flowers or Ask Me Anything!

We are giving way EITHER:

a) A Signed copy of picture book Just Flowers

OR

b) 15-minute Ask Me Anything session with author Erin Dealey

The winner may choose either option.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Erin Dealey is a screenwriter, playwright, blogger, and award-winning children’s author of 16 picture books & board books (so far), including DEAR EARTH…From Your Friends in Room 5 (Harper Collins/ Illus. Luisa Uribe), and PETER EASTER FROG (Simon & Schuster, Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/ Illus. G. Brian Karas). Among her Sleeping Bear titles are SNOWGLOBE WISHES (Illus. Claire Shorrock), CHRISTMAS AHOY! (Illus. Kayla Stark) and the upcoming March 2024 release JUST FLOWERS (Illus. Kate Cosgrove). A credentialed English/theater teacher and former SCBWI Co-RA, she is the PR Coordinator, Beta reader, and assistant to Deborah Warren at East West Literary Agency. She loves opportunities like this to give back to the writing community. To learn more, check out her website and Book Birthdays blog. Also follow her on Instagram, TwitterX, Pinterest, and Facebook.

p.s. Related posts:

Picture Books on Growing A Garden

A Tropical Culinary Garden in Hawaii

Plant a Garden with Your Kids to Teach #PlantPower

Yoga for Kids: Rachel’s Day in the Garden

Butterfly Garden

Fantasy Garden Play Spaces for Kids and Adults

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My books:

Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World

• Junior Library Guild Gold selection
• Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
• Starred review from School Library Journal
• Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
• Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids

 Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me

Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me