Book Roundup: Top 6 Books About Seeds!


a plant emerging from its seed


Book Roundup: Seeds


This week, Little M. and I did an investigation of seeds.  Here is a list of our six favorite books about seeds.

6. Seeds Sprout!, by Mary Dodson Wade: This neat little book goes into some more of the botanical terms, such as seed coat, than the other books in this list. It also invites the reader to complete an experiment testing the effect that soaking bean seeds has on sprouting time.

5. A Seed Is the Start, by Melissa Stewart: This book is filled with amazingly colorful and striking photographs. It covers the steps a seed takes underground to sprout, as well as the varied ways seeds spread throughout the environment to grow in new places. Little M. especially liked the idea of seeds being distributed by animals through poop.

4. Ten Seeds, by Ruth Brown: This reverse counting book begins with ten seeds resting in the soil. With the turn of each page, one animal eats or destroys the seeds (and eventually plants). The plants grow and die, until eventually only one beautiful flower (and one bee to pollinate it) are left. The book ends with beautiful symmetry: ten seeds fall from the sunflower, inviting the reader to imagine the cycle beginning anew.

3. Seeds, by Ken Robbins: This book is filled with gorgeous photo illustrations. Each page features one or two different types of seed bearing plants. The choice of subjects covers much of the diversity of seed bearing plants as well as discussing many of the amazing adaptions that allow plants to reproduce and proliferate, such as the way coconuts hitch a ride on the waves using the buoyancy provided by an air pocket contained within.

2. The Tiny Seed, by Eric Carle: This book is illustrated in the unique and beautiful style of Eric Carle, author and illustrator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It chronicles the year long life of a seed. First, the seed is blown from it's parent plant with many others. Many of the other seeds fail to germinate for several reasons, but the tiny seed grows into a seedling. Of the plants that do grow into seedlings, the tiny seed is the only one that survives to be a flower, and the largest flower that anyone has ever seen at that. The book demonstrates scientific concepts such as natural selection and the dispersal of seeds via wind. It also creates a beautiful metaphor for the child who may develop as quickly as the others, but still becomes a beautiful human being.

1. The Carrot Seed, by Ruth Krauss: This book was Little M.'s absolute favorite this week. She requested it nonstop. It is drawn much in the style of Harold and the Purple Crayon, which should be unsurprising, because they were both illustrated by Crockett Johnson in addition to being written by Ruth Krauss. The main character of the story, a little boy, plants a carrot seed and cares for it despite the doubts of everyone around him that it would, in fact, grow. The seed does grow into a huge carrot demonstrating that perseverance pays off.

I hope you found this list helpful.  Did I forget anything?  Be sure to comment with your favorite seed book!


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