[.ca] Hollyhocks And Honeybees (Pb) (Ages 3-8) (ISBN 1929610203)

An unimaginative retread of more interesting, useful books:
As an early childhood educator, I was excited to read this book. I was looking forward to new, imaginative ideas for my students' garden projects, which the three southern Illinois authors promised in their introduction. Instead---I was startled by the utter lack of imagination I found in this book. Plans for a dinosaur garden, sensory garden, and bird/butterfly garden are old news and have been around for decades in early childhood education. I am still amazed that the authors took credit for ideas that have been around for so long. While there were some valuable garden tips from the third author (Midden), I found the teaching tips from the first two teachers/authors (Starbuck and Olthof) truly awful and cumbersome in design. Finally, I liked the idea of providing recipes that would be derived completely from the children's gardens. I was again aghast that the recipes (such as basil tomato tart, basil cream pasta, marigold cheesecake and chive potato pancakes) had almost NO ingredients from the children's gardens! The pancakes recipe only had chives from the gardens, and the marigold cheesecake recipe had only two teaspoons of marigold petals and some lemon balm leaves. Why not come up with some creative ideas for recipes that the children can cook? All four of these recipes, which I found from other sources and which are NOT the authors' original recipes, are complicated even for adults. It would be nice for these teachers to put on their thinking caps and make this book child- and educator-friendly. I am not sure of the audience intended by these authors, but it certainly isn't my students and it most certainly isn't me or the parents with whom I work. Other books in this area are much better than the Starbuck et al book---these include "Beyond the Bean Seed" (which is a fabulous book much more in tune with the needs of educators, parents and children) and "The Children's Kitchen Garden." Don't waste your money on the Starbuck et al book. It is uncreative, poorly written and loosely based on other books that do their job a hundred times better.

Useful for teachers of young children:
This book was written by three women who developed a garden for young children in southern Illinois. They offer lots of ideas and suggestions, mostly based on their experience. The reader feels that they have been through it all - applying for grants, working around bureaucracy, being allotted an awkward piece of land, searching for donations. And they have come up with a valuable guidebook that starts by answering the question "Why Garden?" The second chapter deals with engaging children in gardening and the book then goes on to planning and building a garden, working with children in the garden, frequently asked questions and a great section on universal garden learning experiences that can be undertaken in any garden. These are really valuable to anyone teaching a child a love of plants and gardening. The book ends with some recipes for eating what has been grown, and generous lists of references and resources. This is by far the most useful book on gardening with children that I have found. It is comprehensive and leads the reader from concept, through the challenges to the many valuable learning experiences involved in gardening with children.

Useful for teachers of young children:
This book was written by three women who developed a garden for young children in southern Illinois. They offer lots of ideas and suggestions, mostly based on their experience. The reader feels that they have been through it all - applying for grants, working around bureaucracy, being allotted an awkward piece of land, searching for donations. And they have come up with a valuable guidebook that starts by answering the question "Why Garden?" The second chapter deals with engaging children in gardening and the book then goes on to planning and building a garden, working with children in the garden, frequently asked questions and a great section on universal garden learning experiences that can be undertaken in any garden. These are really valuable to anyone teaching a child a love of plants and gardening. The book ends with some recipes for eating what has been grown, and generous lists of references and resources. This is by far the most useful book on gardening with children that I have found. It is comprehensive and leads the reader from concept, through the challenges to the many valuable learning experiences involved in gardening with children.