What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Stories (any age group) where plants are producing unusual (impossible) fruit, or the leaves are replaced by money, etc.

I don't really mind how peripheral to the central story it is.

I was thinking along the line of The Teddy Bear Tree, or The Cookie Tree, or where the (child) plants buttons, jellybeans and the like and gets (or imagines themselves getting) a correspondingly fantastic yield, as in the case of Mitzi's Magic Garden and Kevin Henkes' My Garden

Many thanks for your suggestions!

The Money Tree
The Candy Conspiracy
The Land of Neverbelieve
The Shrinking of Treehorn
Big Rock Candy Mountains
Kayla and the Chocolate Tree
Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm
The Magic of Melwick Orchard
My Magnificent Jelly Bean Tree
Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree

Wow - thanks, Rainbowheart! :) What a harvest!

In Ashenputtel, (a version of Cinderella), the heroine's tree produces three beautiful gowns and three sets of slippers for her. (Can't find a version in English, but it's one of Grimm's Fairy Tales): The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales


It's a stretch, but in Little Men by Louisa May Alcott, a boy with brain damage "plants" buttons in his garden. When nothing comes up, he sticks an old, dead branch there. One night, a kind woman ties oranges to it so that he has something to harvest the next day. Little Men

Both are fine by me - the Little Men one is very sweet. :) And I think "Aschenputtel" deserves the title of the ORIGINAL Cinderella, right? ;)

Thanks for these!

The Money Tree
On Top of Spaghetti
The Diamond Tree
Ozma of Oz
The Habitation of the Blessed
The Star-Touched Queen

Capn wrote: "Both are fine by me - the Little Men one is very sweet. :) And I think "Aschenputtel" deserves the title of the ORIGINAL Cinderella, right? ;)

Thanks for these!"

You're welcome, but there are versions of the "Cinderella" story from all over the world. I've read that "Yeh-Shen", a version from China, is the oldest, but I can't confirm that. Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China

Along the same lines as the scene in Little Men, the parents in The Gumdrop Tree attach gumdrops to the tree for their daughter.

You could include just about everything in Piers Anthony s Xanth series also... Not all the puns are plants, but a lot are

Thanks, Paige, Pamela, Rainbowheart & Andrew! :)

Perhaps slightly different than the request as it is not the plants themselves that are special but instead the soil. In fact it is so rich if you plant a nickel it will grow into a quarter! LOL.

McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Farm: Three Tall Tales out at the following link is a fun YA read and you might find it interesting. If you do there are others in the series.

McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Farm: Three Tall Tales

"When Josh McBroom learns that the eighty acres of Iowa farmland he's purchased are all stacked up on top of each other at the bottom of a muddy little pond, he thinks he's been bamboozled. But McBroom knows he's got the better of the bargain when the pond dries up to reveal an acre of soil so rich that seeds spring up into full-grown plants in no time and even nickels grow into quarters."

Hmm, interesting! In the Narnia series, that's how the lamp post 'grows' in the woods (magically fertile soil)...

Works for me, though - if you can plant a nickel and get a harvest, that seems to fit the bill! Thanks! :)

The Balloon Tree by Phoebe Gilman

Oh, perfect! Thank you, Sirvantes!

@Capn. Glad to hear the suggestion on McBroom fits. Too, good point on Narnia and Lantern Waste.

It's a science fiction book, but I loved The Integral Trees by Larry Niven. I read it a long time ago so I don't quite remember the plot. But there are fantastical trees in it.

Thanks, Deborah - I doubt I would have ever stumbled across on my own!