From seed to sprout to finished fruit, plants spring to life in this inventive picture book that folds out into four scenes on every spread. In a question-and-answer format, the smooth, rhyming text introduces botany basics, including some challenging vocabulary, such as “well-drained soil.” Right-hand pages fold out to show the emerging plant in bright color photos, finally reaching an oversize scene of a child enjoying the mature fruit (including some often classified as veggies, such as peas and peppers). Both entertaining and informative, this offers lots of hands-on, interactive fun, along with a basic introduction to plant science. Preschool. --Gillian Engberg
About the Author
Tilde studied photography at the Rhode Island School of Design, but her journey in photography began much earlier. As a toddler of a professional photographer, she was often stagged in tutus or with a finger in the nose. Growing older, she helped lug equipment to places like Tijuana, where her father was basing a children’s book. Then in her teens she completed several photojournalism assignments abroad of her own, through children’s organizations such as Compassion and other orphan relief agencies.
My First Ballet Class is her third children’s book to photograph. Her own experiences as a child model have taught her that you can’t capture the magic of childhood unless the subjects are free to truly be themselves.