Common Sense Media Review
By Tracy Moore
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Evocative gardening book makes nature come alive.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 5+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
Read along as Nana and her granddaughter tend to the garden throughout the seasons. While the little one languishes in the hot sun in need of a cool drink, earthworms just below the surface are digging deeper into the shade to take refuge. From rain showers to extreme heat to the harvest and the first snowfall, throughout every season watch as nature and humans play a unique part in working and caring for the land, and explore the bustling activity that defines every natural phase of growth.
Is It Any Good?
UP IN THE GARDEN AND DOWN IN THE DIRT is a marvel of language and illustration. The sing-song rhymes and evocative mixed-media illustrations make nature pop with every season. For preschoolers or kindergartners who have a new understanding of the exciting new world around them, the language here crackles, and the illustrations show the teeming life in the dirt they're just beginning to understand. It also fosters an excitement about the natural phases of the seasons and reinforces the idea that everything has its own unique pattern and cycle in the world.
There's a strongly positive intergenerational relationship of mentoring and respect between elder and granddaughter, as well as an enthusiasm for nature, gardening, outside play, and respect for all living things that kids will find contagious.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt portrays gardening. Does it make it sound more exciting than you thought? Why, or why not? How does the author do that?
Do you like planting vegetables? What vegetables or plants have you planted or cared for?
Which season is your favorite, and why?
Book Details
- Author :
- Illustrator : Christopher Silas Neal
- Genre : Picture Book
- Topics : STEM
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Chronicle Books
- Publication date : March 3, 2015
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 5 - 8
- Number of pages : 52
- Available on : Nook, Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
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