Everything grows, anyone knows . . . So sings Raffi in his uplifting children's song that inspired this book. Accompanying Raffi's lyrics there are illustrations by Eugenie Fernandes, with subjects including children of different races, and various scenes from nature.
3.5/5 ⭐️. The illustrations were excellent! I appreciated showing interracial families. I know this is based on a song, but for me it was overly-repetitive, even for a children’s book.
Love Raffi. Not my favourite song of his, and it's way too repetitive to be used as a picture book (if the repetition theme had been utilized - maybe showing a sunflower or bean stalk growing incrementally each time, for example), that might have been okay. But no.
Art is very cute. But I find it almost unreadable. Really the antithesis of Baby Beluga, which seems to apply itself beautifully.
I think these are some of the best illustrations I have seen depicting inner emotional lives. They are sweet and nuanced and show a range of emotions! I think I would enjoy the book even more if I knew the melody of the song before reading it. "What a Wonderful World," for example, begs to be sung, and I think this book would have bigger impact if I knew "Everything Grows." I guess I need to learn it!
I have to admit, though I am a YS librarian and know of Raffi, I am not familiar with this song but it makes a fun text and the pictures are adorable. I love that the parents are an interracial couple and that the family is making a trip to a farmer's market. This is a perfect spring or summer book. Maybe someday I'll learn the song so I can sing it rather than read it.
I chose this book because when I read the title and seen the cover page i thought that it would be a book about growing vegetables but as i read the book i seen that this is a fun simple book that can be used as a science lesson about living things. It teaches young readers about how everything that has life grows.
Not as catchy song as others If read instead sing may be boring from repetitive chorus Focus on mother, father, sister, brother (not all kids have siblings though)
Learn that all living things grow
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Beautiful illustrations with lots of representation by a wide variety of folx, a very cute board book with simplistic melody to the words. Sweet addition for a baby or toddlers library
I like that he included the music at the end of the book. The second time reading through I played the song on YouTube and pointed out the words to baby as we went along.