Doing The Garden

Having/Doing/Going Family

by Sarah Garland

Spring has come and it's time to tend the garden. But the fun starts when baby, dog and rabbit all decide to get in on the act as well

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 1992

About the author

There is more than one author with this name.

Sarah Garland has written and illustrated over forty picture books and adventure stories for young children. She is best known for her warm and witty portrayals of family relationships, and for her outstanding work for preschool picture books.

She lives in the beautiful village of Chedworth in the Cotswolds with
her husband, artist David Garland.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series has nothing particularly unusual happening and the illustrations are not amazing but they were a daily favourite when my children were small. Focusing on the day to day life of two preschool siblings, their mum their dog and their cat, this story follows the family as they seek to brighten up their back yard with some plants. So they take a walk to the garden centre, and after lots of digging they sit back to admire their work with a cup of tea and watch a bird land in their newly planted tree.

These stories have a lovely feeling of family closeness and doing simple things that matter. There doesn't appear to be a dad around in these books so I imagine that this series could be quite postive and reassuring for children growing up with one parent.

[Jenna Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite liked this one. I love the way it is so realistic with her looking rather harried half the time! I need to go to the garden centre!

[Lizzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

We like the taking the pram to get the stuff, and we like the fact the baby sets his heart on a stone gnome, then drags it round everywhere for the rest of the book.

[Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellently illustrates the futility of attempting chores while overseeing a toddler and a poorly trained dog simultaneously.

What is up with the garden gnome? Why is the toddler trusted with it's care, how did the toddler persuade the mother to purchase it, and look at how it's inserted itself into the family at all times since. Is this some version of the mind control fern?

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 2 1/2 year old loves the book. We have a dog that looks like the dog in the book and like to garden together and visit garden centres so I think the similarity and familiarity appeal to her. I really enjoyed the illustrations. There is plenty for her to look at and not too many words on each page so I am actually able to read them before she tries to turn the page.

[SBC · Rating 3 out of 5]

We're big fans of "Going Swimming" so picked this one up as well. We enjoyed it, but I expected it to be more about the average gardening experience (i.e. weeding, etc). Instead, it was about going to the garden shop and setting up a garden from scratch with flowers and a tree.