Saving Kate’s Flowers

By: Cindy Sommer
Illustrated by: Laurie Allen Klein
Publisher: Arbordale Publishing
Publication Date: August 2016
ISBN: 978-1628558708
Reviewed by: Holly Connors
Review Date: October 12, 2016

Kate is an adorable young bunny who loves helping her mother out in the garden. What fun it is to take care of plants and watch them grow. In this sweet new book, young readers will learn about the plant lifecycle as they watch Kate try to save all those plants from the impending winter weather.

One day, as the cold weather approaches, Kate asks her mother what happens to all the plants in the winter. While some plants are perennials and come back next year, explains Kate’s mother, others die from the cold. Kate decides that she wants to save some of those plants and asks for her mother’s help.

Kate has soon learned how to transplant various plants as well as collect seeds. She has high hopes for bringing lots of plants into the house to be saved. When the phone rings, Kate’s mother heads to the house to answer it and that’s when things get really interesting. As her mom talks and talks and talks on the phone, Kate gets very busy trying to save every single plant. By the time her mother gets off the phone, Kate has managed to fill every nook and cranny in the house with a plant from the garden. Kate’s mother is not very happy with the way the house has been taken over, and when Kate’s father starts sneezing, it’s time to think of someplace else to keep the plants. But where?

There are so many books for children about planting a garden, but this is the first one I’ve seen that addresses what happens to that garden at the end of the growing season. Explaining what happens, in an easy to understand way, combined with the delightful illustrations will engage and teach children. Add in the four pages of plant and planting facts at the end of the book, and you have a winner that young gardening enthusiasts will love.

Quill says: A charming book full of fun facts on plants and their life cycles.