It Starts With a Seed
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Take a journey through the seasons and years as we follow the seed’s transformation from a seedling to a sapling, then a young tree, until it becomes a large tree with its branches and roots filling the page.
Take a journey through the seasons and years as we follow the seed’s transformation from a seedling to a sapling, then a young tree, until it becomes a large tree with its branches and roots filling the page.
As the tree grows, it is joined by well-loved woodland creatures – squirrels and rabbits, butterflies and owls – who make it their home. Beautiful and evocative, It Starts With a Seed is a factual story that will touch children with its simple, enchanting message of life and growth.
About the Author
Laura Knowles has a background in children’s publishing and is the author of It Starts with a Seed, which was awarded the 2017 Margaret Mallett Award for Children’s
Non-fiction. Her love of natural history, words and art have drawn her to work on books about animals and nature. She likes tame animals nearly as much as wild ones, and has two elderly goldfish and one very chatty cat.
A Few Reviews:
The small seed grows into a sycamore tree in this poetic natural history lesson. “As days turn to weeks,/the seedling has grown:/it’s a dragonfly perch!/A ladybird throne!” The spare lines of poetry and simple-colored sketches framed on facing pages follow the tree’s growth through the seasons as it spreads beneath the ground and into the air. “It’s not just a tree/but a wonderful world,/full of beetles and grubs/and squirrels and birds.” Except for that dragonfly and two ladybirds in an early view, the smaller creatures don’t appear, but there are assorted birds and a few squirrels up above and rabbits and even two foxes beneath the grown tree. The tree’s life cycle is pretty well captured, though two terms will be unfamiliar to picture book listeners/viewers/ “With each passing year/the trunk builds up its rings” offers a teaching moment. The reference to “…their leaf-laden,/bark-bound arboreal home” is heavier going than the rest of the poem. Imported from England (hence the grubs and ladybirds), this offering concludes with a single page printed with the poem that folds out with a double-page view of the seeds and realistic leaves through the seasons. These are labeled with added facts about the sycamore tree. “A single tree can produce as many as 10,000 seeds a year.” VERDICT A pleasant bit of early STEM material, perfect for prompting discussion and explanation. – School Library Journal
“Spare, rhyming text and detailed artwork inform readers about the life cycle of a sycamore tree, from seed to maturity—and its role in the ecosystem…While giving a general idea of how one journey from seed to tree influences an entire ecosystem, the text also emphasizes the wonder of growth—and life—itself. The tone is soothing and reverential. No hype here: understated enchantment.” – Kirkus Reviews
