Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Rose's Garden
Picture Book
For ages 6 and up
Candlewick, 2009 ISBN: 978-0763646417
Rose has traveled the world in her “fantastic teapot,” and her unique traveling vessel is now full of the seeds that she collected in all the places she visited. Now that her teapot is “heavy and brimmed with seeds,” Rose has decided that it is time to settle down somewhere where she can plant her seeds to create a garden.
Rose arrives in a city, and she finds the perfect place for her garden. Unfortunately, while she is looking around the city, birds find her teapot and they eat all but a few of her seeds. Carefully Rose gathers the few seeds that are left and she plants them. Patiently Rose waits and waits but nothing happens. She waits patiently through spring, summer, fall, and winter, and word of her patience spreads. Children from all over the world bring Rose paper flowers, and soon Rose has a garden full of the bright cheerful paper flowers that she is given.
In this unique and beautiful picture book, Peter Reynolds pays tribute to Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, a lady who “planted her own perennial garden” to give the people in Boston a beautiful place where they could be close to nature, and enjoy flowers and green spaces. Readers will be moved to see how Rose and the children who come to see her, work together to give the city a gift that is beautiful to the eyes and heart. If we have patience, faith and a sense of community, there is so much that we can do to make the world a better place.
