Ten Seeds

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The perfect counting book for young nature-lovers

If you plantnbsp;10 seeds, what do you get? Follow nature's wonderful cycle in this engaging counting book with a difference! Rounded corners and card pages make this picture booknbsp;perfect for young children.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Learning Made Fun "Ten seeds,/ one ant./ Nine seeds,/ one pigeon." As the countdown begins in Ten Seeds by Ruth Brown, children watch the seeds (then seedlings, shoots and plants) disappear from various encounters. The last seed survives, turning into a sunflower and then dropping 10 seeds so the cycle will begin again. Printed on sturdy stock, the book's full-spread art gives readers an up-close look at gardening. ( May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

PreS-K-Cleverly combining simple subtraction with the growth of plants, Brown's plot opens with 10 seeds being snugly planted in rich, black soil. An ant lifts out the first seed, a pigeon picks up the second just as it's beginning to develop rootlets, and a mouse digs the next as it grows longer roots. A slug eats one of the seven remaining seedlings, a mole burrows under one of the six shoots, and a cat claws up the next one. Four small plants are further reduced by one ball, one puppy, and too many greenflies, until a lone surviving sunflower blooms and ultimately produces 10 seeds. With accuracy and charm, the handsome, realistic, double-page watercolor illustrations bring the cycle to life.-Patricia Pearl Dole, formerly at First Presbyterian School, Martinsville, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Ages 3^-5. With very few words and bright double-page watercolor illustrations on extra-thick paper, this beautiful counting book about subtraction is also a dramatic nature story about how plants grow and spread their seeds. A young preschooler plants 10 seeds. One ant takes one seed. Then there are nine seeds--and one pigeon. Turn the page and there are "Eight seeds, one mouse." Then there are seven seedlings and one slug. As the plants grow, a bud is taken off by a mole, another by a cat, a ball, a puppy--until there are two buds and too many greenflies. The climax is one big, spreading, gorgeous sunflower and one bee. . . and on the endpapers, a shriveled flower and "Ten seeds!" for the boy to plant, and for kids to count and start again. The book design reinforces the continuity of the garden story and its excitement. As always, Brown's warm, realistic close-up pictures will pull children right in. Kids will almost feel the gritty soil, the squishy slug, the furry cat, the astonishing flower. --Hazel Rochman

Horn Book Review

(Preschool) This on-target counting book with a gardening theme takes young children through the life cycle of a sunflower from seed to plant and back again. At the start of the book, a young hand plants ten sunflower seeds which, over the course of the narrative, are uprooted one by one-carried away by birds, mice, insects, humans, and other animals. One hardy seedling makes it through the perils of backyard life to produce a strong and healthy sunflower whose seeds will begin the next step in the life cycle of this plant. While clues to both the disappearance and growth of the original seeds are provided in the spare text (""Seven seedlings, one slug. Six shoots, one mole""), impeccable details can be found in the gentle illustrations, providing the perfect opportunity to hone scientific observation skills. Each turn of the round-cornered, coated-stock pages brings a new view of the plants underground, shows the minute changes occurring in the seeds as they germinate, and catches garden residents in the act of pilfering the seedlings. While the text readily sets up a lesson in counting down from ten, it also presents a marvelous opportunity to discuss plant life cycles and survival. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.