My First Garden [Hardcover]

Tomek Bogacki (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

Inspired by hearing that a garden used to grow in the yard in front of his house, a boy recreates it with loving care.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The power of memory, not a child's garden, is chiefly the subject of this apparently autobiographical book, narrated by an adult and reflective of an adult sensibility. At the beginning, a man aboard a train sees a town that takes him back to his European childhood--a safe but insular world of red-roofed houses. He recalls how being old enough to ride a bike meant pushing back the boundaries of his circumscribed existence: "The town seemed to get smaller and smaller the further I went." His bicycle trip one day leads him to a garden presided over by a philosophical gardener, and he is inspired to grow his own "magical place" back home. The story comes full circle to the present: the narrator's train arrives at the station, and there waits his son with his bike, ready to talk about his own first garden. The choice of garden as focal point seems arbitrary--the text has the amorphous quality of a reminiscence. The structure is like an album, with large illustrations alternating with beguiling, evocatively captioned vignettes; the vignettes appear to emanate from the main composition, like details emphasized in a memoir. In these ways the book approximates the fragmented recollections of childhood. Similarly, the impressionistic pastels look as if they are in the midst of materializing from out of the past. Like Peter S!s's darker, more mystical The Three Golden Keys, this work evokes the sense of a vanished world--but also celebrates the exquisiteness of one's own yearning for it. Ages 5-up. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-3-A man remembers his childhood in a small Polish town. Readers see his life through narrative and large illustrations, combined with commentary delivered by small figures of neighborhood children in smaller scenes. For example, he tells of riding his bicycle all over town, which gives him a wider view of his world. On the double-page spread there is a picture of a boy on a red bicycle waiting at the train station for his father, and also spot art showing and noting other places he rides: "Church Street was uphill." "I went around the City Hall on my way to the park." And so on. The garden he makes in his cobblestone courtyard is inspired by a woman he discovers on one of his excursions. Never mind that he creates this large and colorful garden alone, and transforms the neighborhood: this is a remembrance, perhaps a dream. When the man arrives home on the train, his own young son is there with his bicycle, ready to go home and make his first garden. The illustrations are softly colored and fuzzily impressionistic, just right for the quiet text. However, because of its nostalgic, dreamlike qualities, it is difficult to predict the audience for this book. A special and fine choice for those readers who can connect with it.
Carolyn Jenks, First Parish Unitarian Church, Portland, ME
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); 1st edition (March 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374325189
• ISBN-13: 978-0374325183
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,500,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A softly appealing book, February 20, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: My First Garden (Hardcover)

My 4.5yo son and I shared this book for the first time today and both enjoyed it immensely. It is always a joy to find a book featuring a young boy engaged in innocent childhood interests combined with beautiful illustrations and rich language. This is one of those books. My son was instantly drawn to the main character with his affinity for trains and bikes. Gardening is a favorite family activity of ours, so the themes were a perfect match.

I highly recommend this book.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Remembering his childhood garden, July 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: My First Garden (Hardcover)

This is an autobiographical account of a man remembering a garden he created when he was a boy. He heard about an old garden that had existed before at the same place. At the same time his own son is starting his first garden. This way, the book tells about three gardens and renewal.

The illustrations by the author are in muted colors and sometimes contain labels or extra text.