Bookology Magazine

How Does Your Garden Grow?

The ben­e­fits of gar­den­ing are well-doc­u­ment­ed, both for adults and for chil­dren. Adults may see improve­ment in phys­i­cal health, men­tal well-being, and diet, for exam­ple, [1] while chil­dren gain hands-on STEM learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, social and emo­tion­al sup­port, and aware­ness of envi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship. [2] To help instill or nur­ture an inter­est in gar­den­ing, five Calde­cott Hon­or books fea­ture the won­ders that gar­dens hold as places that pro­vide sus­te­nance, restora­tion, and a sense of mystery.

Tops & Bottoms by Janet Stevens

Illus­tra­tor Janet Stevens adapts a trick­ster tale for a con­tem­po­rary audi­ence in Tops & Bot­toms. In this 1996 Calde­cott Hon­or book, Hare is des­per­ate to feed his hun­gry fam­i­ly after hav­ing to sell land to his lazy neigh­bor Bear. The pair strikes a deal: Bear will lend a plot of land to Hare, Hare and his fam­i­ly will plant and har­vest the crops, and the two will split the boun­ty. When Bear requests “tops,” Hare plants car­rots, radish­es and beets. When Bear requests “bot­toms,” Hare plants let­tuce, broc­coli, and cel­ery. Final­ly, Bear requests “tops and bot­toms,” and Hare plants corn.

Out­smart­ed three times, Bear “nev­er again slept through a sea­son of plant­i­ng and har­vest­ing.” Hare buys back his land, and his fam­i­ly thrives. While Stevens doesn’t include source notes, the front jack­et flap informs read­ers that the sto­ry is “[r]ooted in Euro­pean folk­tales and slave sto­ries of the Amer­i­can South.” [3]

illustration from Tops & Bottoms by Janet Stevens
illus­tra­tion © Janet Stevens from Tops & Bot­toms, Clar­i­on Books, 1995

The most remark­able fea­ture of the book is its ori­en­ta­tion: Read­ers must turn it 90 degrees to open it ver­ti­cal­ly, an idea that Stevens came up with and sug­gest­ed to her pub­lish­er. [4] The unusu­al­ly tall spreads, most of which are full-bleed, bare­ly con­tain the action. The disheveled sleep­ing Bear, flop­ping out of his chair, shifts from the top of the illus­tra­tions to the bot­tom, then back to the top as his agree­ments with Hare change. With water­col­or, col­ored pen­cil, and ges­so on earth-toned hand­made paper, [5] Stevens uses a child-friend­ly car­toon style to infuse humor into the sto­ry. A range of neu­trals and greens dom­i­nate the spreads. The end­pa­pers are filled with the tops, bot­toms, and mid­dles from the hare family’s bounty.

Endpapers from Tops & Bottoms
illus­tra­tion © Janet Stevens from Tops & Bot­toms, Clar­i­on Books, 1995

The Gardener by Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small

Beyond a suc­cess­ful har­vest, the rewards of gar­den­ing can be derived from cre­at­ing and shar­ing a place of beau­ty. Sarah Stewart’s The Gar­den­er, illus­trat­ed by her hus­band David Small, fol­lows Lydia Grace, a girl sent from her home in the coun­try to live with her Uncle Jim in New York City until her par­ents can find finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty. The sto­ry is told through the girl’s short let­ters from August 1935 to July 1936, with Small’s illus­tra­tions car­ry­ing much of the nar­ra­tive. The front end­pa­pers and dou­ble-page title page sug­gest that the girl loves to gar­den, con­firmed by the seed pack­ets tum­bling out of her suit­case, let­ters she sends, and bulbs and seedlings she receives in the mail. Read­ers see that she is fill­ing win­dow box­es and read that new neigh­bors are bring­ing her plants and con­tain­ers. Gar­den­ing is a source of com­fort and pride for Lydia Grace. Come May, the front of Uncle Jim’s store­front bak­ery is bright­ened with bloom­ing flowers.

illustration from The Gardener by David Small
illus­tra­tion © David Small, The Gar­den­er, writ­ten by Sarah Stew­art, Far­rar Straus & Giroux, 1997
illustration from The Gardener by David Small
illus­tra­tion © David Small, The Gar­den­er, writ­ten by Sarah Stew­art, Far­rar Straus & Giroux, 1997

Lydia Grace reveals her “secret place” on the Fourth of July when she beck­ons her uncle to the flat rooftop of the three-sto­ry build­ing, over­flow­ing with con­tain­ers of flow­ers and veg­eta­bles. In this space of unex­pect­ed col­or and delight, Uncle Jim’s char­ac­ter­is­ti­cal­ly stern demeanor is in stark con­trast with the enthu­si­asm of adult friends Ed and Emma and Lydia Grace. While his gruff­ness nev­er changes dur­ing her stay, the uncle shows his love for the girl with a splen­did farewell cake when Lydia Grace is beck­oned back home. In the ten­der word­less final scene, the for­bid­ding train sta­tion where the girl arrived months ear­li­er is now bathed in gold­en hues as Uncle Jim gives her a hug, Ed and Emma look on, and the for­mer store cat peeks out from its trav­el car­ri­er. The sto­ry is based on the child­hood of the author’s gar­den­er friend, also named Lydia Grace Finch. [6]

illustration from The Gardener by David Small
illus­tra­tion © David Small, The Gar­den­er, writ­ten by Sarah Stew­art, Far­rar Straus & Giroux, 1997

In this 1998 Calde­cott Hon­or book, Small ren­ders his loose illus­tra­tions in water­col­or, ink pen line, and cray­on [7] in a sophis­ti­cat­ed car­toon style. With a few pen strokes, char­ac­ters’ expres­sions car­ry much emo­tion. Small uses a palette of most­ly pas­tel col­ors through­out the book in dou­ble-page, full-bleed spreads. Warm light cheers indoor scenes, while sun­light bathes the bak­ery neigh­bor­hood as Lydia Grace dis­cov­ers an appre­ci­a­tion for her city home. In every spread, the young gar­den­er is com­plete­ly sur­round­ed by a halo, ema­nat­ing light even dur­ing try­ing times.

The Rough Patch by Brian Lies

Anoth­er mov­ing sto­ry that explores the gar­den as a place of joy and heal­ing is The Rough Patch, a 2019 Calde­cott Hon­or book writ­ten and illus­trat­ed by Bri­an Lies. Read­ers first meet Evan, an anthro­po­mor­phic fox don­ning over­alls, and his dog in the gar­den, before learn­ing all the oth­er things they do togeth­er. “But what they loved the most was work­ing in Evan’s mag­nif­i­cent gar­den.” Abrupt­ly, “the unthink­able hap­pened” when the dog dies.

In his grief and fury, Evan destroys the gar­den and nur­tures the weeds that move in. When a wan­der­ing vine creeps under the fence into his yard, Evan leaves it and finds him­self car­ing for the lone squash that emerges. Ulti­mate­ly, tend­ing to what becomes an enor­mous pump­kin awak­ens Evan’s weary spir­it and helps him recon­nect to the rhythm of the grow­ing sea­son, fall tra­di­tions, and friends. The final word­less sin­gle-page illus­tra­tion shows a new pup­py in the pas­sen­ger seat of Evan’s pick-up truck.

illustration from The Rough Patch by Brian Lies
illus­tra­tion © Bri­an Lies from The Rough Patch, Green­wil­low, 2018
illustration from The Rough Patch by Brian Lies
illus­tra­tion © Bri­an Lies from The Rough Patch, Green­wil­low, 2018

Lies deft­ly blends real­is­tic and car­toon styles to cre­ate detailed illus­tra­tions with acrylics, oils, and col­ored pen­cils, [8] using deep, rich col­ors and play­ing with light, shad­ow, and per­spec­tive dur­ing the pro­tag­o­nist’s recov­ery from loss. Lies varies the page design, from sat­u­rat­ed full-bleed dou­ble-page spreads to mul­ti­ple vignettes on a spread, with tran­si­tion­al scenes on a vast white back­ground. The author-illus­tra­tor con­sid­ers the book “a med­i­ta­tion on grief and the anger which some­times accom­pa­nies it … and on hope.” [9]

Grandpa Green by Lane Smith

In a more under­stat­ed man­ner, author-illus­tra­tor Lane Smith also con­sid­ers rela­tion­ships and loss in Grand­pa Green, a 2012 Calde­cott Hon­or book. Set in a top­i­ary gar­den, a boy moves among the many liv­ing sculp­tures that con­vey sig­nif­i­cant moments of his great-grandfather’s life. Along the way, the boy picks up items left behind by the elder gar­den­er  who “some­times for­gets things.”

illustration from Grandpa Green by Lane Smith
illus­tra­tion © Lane Smith from Grand­pa Green, Roar­ing Brook Press, 2011

“But the impor­tant stuff, the gar­den remem­bers for him.” Humor­ous scenes are bal­anced with poignant ones: The tears of the new­born baby spring from a hid­den hose, while top­i­ary flames and a can­non­ball fly from a can­non in wartime. When the boy com­pletes his tour, pulling a wag­on filled with lost pos­ses­sions, his great-grand­fa­ther has begun what might be his final tableau. A gate­fold opens to the com­plet­ed piece of the boy fight­ing a drag­on, set amidst the oth­er impres­sive top­i­ary works intro­duced on the boy’s walk. The book ends with a word­less sin­gle-page spread show­ing the boy cre­at­ing a top­i­ary trib­ute to his great-grand­fa­ther. (click on the image below for a larg­er view)

illustration from Grandpa Green by Lane Smith
illus­tra­tion © Lane Smith from Grand­pa Green, Roar­ing Brook Press, 2011

Smith show­cas­es a self-described “media extrav­a­gan­za” [10] in his full-bleed car­toon and abstract illus­tra­tions. The humans and the objects retrieved by the boy are drawn in sim­ple lines with a brush and water­proof draw­ing ink, col­ored with sub­tle green, brown, pink, and gold and placed against white back­grounds; tree trunks and branch­es are also drawn with ink. In con­trast, the tex­tured foliage, in var­i­ous shades of green, is applied with tech­niques includ­ing a sponge dipped in water­col­or; “oil-based paint and a lot of thin­ner … sprayed … with a water-based var­nish” and blow-dried; [11] and dig­i­tal paint. [12] Deep red is used judi­cious­ly in top­i­ary scenes of ill­ness, book char­ac­ters, war, and love. Smith admits that the linework and lim­it­ed col­or con­veys “a strong 1970s vibe,” [13] lend­ing a nos­tal­gic feel to a multi­gen­er­a­tional story.

The Garden of Abdul Gasazi by Chris Van Allsburg

A top­i­ary is also the set­ting of The Gar­den of Abdul Gasazi, the first book pub­lished by author-illus­tra­tor Chris Van Alls­burg. In this 1980 Calde­cott Hon­or book, Miss Hes­ter asks Alan Mitz to watch her “bad-man­nered dog” for an after­noon while she is away. On their walk, Fritz snaps out of his col­lar and dash­es into the gar­den of Gasazi the Great, a retired magi­cian. Here dogs are express­ly forbidden.

The Garden of Abdul Gasazi by Chris Van Allsburg
illus­tra­tion © Chris Van Alls­burg, The Gar­den of Abdul Gasazi, Houghton Mif­flin, 1979

In his des­per­ate search to find Fritz, the boy brave­ly approach­es the magi­cian, who claims that the dog has turned into a duck, one of a small flock on a ter­race. The dura­tion of the spell, he explains, “may last years or per­haps just a day.” The duck flies out of Alan’s arms before the boy leaves the grounds. When the dis­heart­ened boy returns to Miss Hester’s home, he is caught off-guard when the woman and the errant dog greet him. While the woman reas­sures Alan that “‘no one can real­ly turn dogs into ducks,’” a clue on the final spread leads read­ers to think oth­er­wise. The wiley bull ter­ri­er  Fritz was a real dog named Win­ston, owned by the artist’s broth­er-in-law; in fact, the canine appears in some form in Van Allsburg’s sub­se­quent books. [14]

illustration for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi by Chris Van Allsburg
illus­tra­tion © Chris Van Alls­burg, The Gar­den of Abdul Gasazi, Houghton Mif­flin, 1979

Van Alls­burg height­ens the intrigue with real­is­tic black and white illus­tra­tions that play with light and shad­ow. Car­bon pen­cil­work on Strath­more paper [15]  cre­ates soft tex­tures and an omi­nous mood as the artist blends real­i­ty and illu­sion. In the for­mal book design, sin­gle-page illus­tra­tions are placed on the rec­to (right), with text on the fac­ing page enclosed in a dec­o­ra­tive leaf bor­der. In fact, plants or leaf and flower motifs appear in almost all images. Curi­ous­ly, the fan­ci­ful top­i­ary sculp­tures that grace the front book jack­et are nev­er seen in the book, giv­ing read­ers anoth­er mys­tery to ponder.

Van Alls­burg was an estab­lished sculp­tor when he began dab­bling in draw­ing, which ulti­mate­ly led to this book. He explains, “The sto­ry began with a sin­gle image of a boy pur­su­ing a dog through a top­i­ary gar­den. Ask­ing and answer­ing ques­tions about this pic­ture (Who is the boy? Where are he and the dog going? Whose gar­den are they in?) end­ed up reveal­ing a sto­ry that dealt with the dif­fer­ences between stage mag­ic (illu­sion) and gen­uine wiz­ardry.” [16] Indeed, in all of his pic­ture books (think of Juman­ji or The Polar Express, for exam­ples), the author-illus­tra­tor con­tin­ues to delve into the realm of the unex­pect­ed and extraordinary.

In these Calde­cott Hon­or books, the gar­den set­tings are cen­tral to the sto­ry lines. Whether veg­eta­bles, flow­ers, or sculpt­ed shrubs and trees, gar­dens offer a place to cul­ti­vate cre­ativ­i­ty, heal­ing, and awe.

Picture Books Cited

Lies, Bri­an. The Rough Patch. Green­wil­low, 2018.

Smith, Lane. Grand­pa Green. Roar­ing Brook, 2011.

Stevens, Janet. Tops & Bot­toms. Clar­i­on, 1995.

Stew­art, Sarah. The Gar­den­er. Illus­trat­ed by David Small. Far­rar Straus Giroux, 1997.

Van Alls­burg, Chris. The Gar­den of Abdul Gasazi. Houghton Mif­flin, 1979.

Notes
  1. Lisa Wim­mer, “Dig into the Ben­e­fits of Gar­den­ing,” Liv­ing Well, Mayo Clin­ic Press, 29 Feb­ru­ary 2024.
  2. “Why Gar­den with Kids?” About Us, Kids­Gar­den­ing, Accessed 15 March 2026.
  3. Janet Stevens, Tops & Bot­toms (Clar­i­on, 1995), jacket.
  4. Car­olyn S. Brodie, “Janet Stevens: Pic­ture Book Artist and Reteller,” School Library Media Activ­i­ties Month­ly 15, no. 7 (March 1999): 45.
  5. Janet Stevens, Tops & Bot­toms (Clar­i­on, 1995), copy­right page.
  6. Kathy Temean, “Illus­tra­tor Sat­ur­day – David Small,” Writ­ing and Illus­trat­ing: Shar­ing Infor­ma­tion About Writ­ing and Illus­trat­ing for Chil­dren (blog), 16 August 2014.
  7. Asso­ci­a­tion for Library Ser­vice to Chil­dren (ALSC), The New­bery & Calde­cott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Hon­or Books (Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion, 2020), 118.
  8. Bri­an Lies, The Rough Patch (Green­wil­low, 2018), copy­right page.
  9. Bri­an Lies, “Fre­quent­ly Asked Ques­tions,” Bri­an Lies: Children’s Book Author and Illus­tra­tor, Bri­an Lies: Children’s Book Author and Illus­tra­tor, accessed 15 March 2026.
  10. Jen­nifer M. Brown, “A Gar­den of Mem­o­ries,” School Library Jour­nal – Cur­ricu­lum Con­nec­tions. Media Source, Inc. August 2, 2011.
  11. Brown, “A Gar­den of Mem­o­ries.”
  12. Lane Smith, Grand­pa Green (Roar­ing Brook, 2011), copy­right page.
  13. Bur­gin Street­man, “Meet Lane Smith: Part Two,” Vin­tage Kids’ Books My Kids Love (blog), 2 Octo­ber 2011.
  14. Chris Van Alls­burg, “Fre­quent­ly Asked Ques­tions,” Chris Van Alls­burg, Chris Van Alls­burg, accessed 15 March 2026.
  15. ALSC, New­bery & Calde­cott Awards, 133.
  16. G. Wayne Miller, “Q & A with Lisa and Chris Van Alls­burg,” Ocean State Sto­ries, Ocean State Sto­ries, 17 Octo­ber 2024.
Bibliography

Asso­ci­a­tion for Library Ser­vice to Chil­dren (ALSC). The New­bery & Calde­cott Awards: A Guide to the Medal and Hon­or Books. Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion, 2020.

Brodie, Car­olyn S. “Janet Stevens: Pic­ture Book Artist and Reteller.” School Library Media Activ­i­ties Month­ly 15, no. 7 (March 1999): 45 – 47, 50.

Brown, Jen­nifer M. “A Gar­den of Mem­o­ries,” School Library Jour­nal – Cur­ricu­lum Con­nec­tions. Media Source, Inc. 2 August 2011.

Lies, Bri­an. “Fre­quent­ly Asked Ques­tions.” Bri­an Lies: Children’s Book Author and Illus­tra­tor. Bri­an Lies: Children’s Book Author and Illus­tra­tor. Accessed 15 March 2026.

Lies, Bri­an. The Rough Patch. Green­wil­low, 2018.

Miller, G. Wayne. “Q & A with Lisa and Chris Van Alls­burg.” Ocean State Sto­ries. Ocean State Sto­ries. 17 Octo­ber 2024.

Smith, Lane. Grand­pa Green. Roar­ing Brook, 2011.

Stevens, Janet. Tops & Bot­toms. Boston: Clar­i­on, 1995.

Street­man, Bur­gin. “Meet Lane Smith: Part Two.” Vin­tage Kids’ Books My Kids Love (blog). 2 Octo­ber 2011.

Temean, Kathy. “Illus­tra­tor Sat­ur­day – David Small.” Writ­ing and Illus­trat­ing: Shar­ing Infor­ma­tion About Writ­ing and Illus­trat­ing for Chil­dren (blog). 16 August 2014.

Van Alls­burg, Chris. “Fre­quent­ly Asked Ques­tions.” Chris Van Alls­burg. Chris Van Alls­burg. Accessed 15 March 2026.

“Why Gar­den with Kids?” About Us. Kids­Gar­den­ing. Accessed 15 March 2026.

Wim­mer, Lisa. “Dig into the Ben­e­fits of Gar­den­ing.” Liv­ing Well. Mayo Clin­ic Press. 29  Feb­ru­ary 2024.

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Louise Aamodt
Louise Aamodt
1 month ago

SUCH a great col­lec­tion! A cou­ple are new to me, but I’ve already got them on my library request. Thanks!

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