PICTURE BOOK REVIEW: All That Grows by Jack Wong
ABOUT THE BOOK
On their neighborhood walks together, a boy learns from his older sister all about the plants they see — magnolias that smell like lemon cake, creeping weeds that used to be planted for decoration, and even how dandelion greens can be eaten with spaghetti! But what makes a plant a flower, vegetable or weed, anyway? How can his sister tell, and how does she know so much?
The boy’s head spins as he realizes how vast the universe is and how much there is to learn … until he resolves to let his knowledge grow in its own way and time, just like the mysterious plants he has decided to nurture in the garden.
Award-winning creator Jack Wong brings us a delightful, nuanced story about cultivating patience and letting knowledge grow.
REVIEW
Wong's illustrations take center stage in this book about growth. A young boy shares with readers the things he learns while walking with and gardening with his sister. She teaches him about weeds in the garden. She explains how dandelion's can be eaten but only before they flower and he is left wondering why they aren't considered a vegetable rather than a weed. Why are some plants called flowers and others weeds? And why are some plants considered both. The boy's curiosity fills the pages of this book, leaving readers wondering along with him. He especially wonders where his sister learned everything she knows. An experiment of his own leads him to ask his sister a question she can't answer and she suggests looking in her books, but first the plants must be watered. This ode to the power of curiosity and the amazing world of plants and growing things bursts with life. The boy's thirst for knowledge competes with the garden's thirst for water. The sister's patience in answering her brother's many questions also shines a sweet light on a tender sibling relationship. The stunning pastel illustrations wonderfully highlight the beauty to be found in the natural world when people take the time to observe and tend it. The symbolism found in the carefully nurturing of knowledge as well as plants shines through beautifully as well.
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