A Seed Grows - by Antoinette Portis (Paperback)

About the Book

"An educational picture book about the life cycle of a sunflower"--

Book Synopsis

From a tiny seed to a huge, fold-out bloom, the transformative life cycle of a sunflower plays out in this bold read-aloud.

A Sibert Honor Book!
A Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book!

To understand how a seed becomes a sunflower, you have to peek beneath the soil and wait patiently as winding roots grow, a stalk inches out of the earth, and new seeds emerge among blooming petals.

"A seed falls,
And settles into the ground,
And the Sun shines,
And the rain comes down,
And the seed grows. . ."

Leading up to a striking fold-out spread of a full-grown sunflower, the lively, bold illustrations in A Seed Grows offer a close-up view of each step of the growth cycle.

Additional material in the back of the book explains the science of plant life cycles, and goes into more detail on the ways in which flowers and seeds depend on other creatures.

Antoinette Portis is the author of A New Green Day, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and NCTE Notable Book in Poetry, as well as the Sibert Honor winning Hey, Water!

Review Quotes

★ "Clear, engaging, beautiful, and perfectly pitched to its young audience--simply brilliant."--The Horn Book, Starred Review

★ "Like tissue paper held up to a sunny window, Portis's pictures have the glow of stained glass, offering texture and inviting readers to come a little closer to see what she has created. . . . As with all of Portis's books, natural science is served sunny-side up, without a word out of place, in this essential guide."--School Library Journal, Starred Review

★ "Employing spare language and sunny, stippled multimedia spreads that belie their quiet complexity, Portis gracefully traces a sunflower's cycle from seed to sprout to plant--and back again. . . It's a volume almost as jam-packed as a seed itself."--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Youngsters will feel a sense of awe as they witness the magic of a seed's first tender shoot and the symbiosis of nature. . . . [A] useful primer on one of nature's miraculous cycles."--Kirkus Reviews

"An appealing addition to the STEM shelf. . . ."--Booklist

About the Author

Antoinette Portis is the author of many inventive books for children, including Not a Box, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and a Geisel Honor Book and the Sibert Honor book Hey, Water!, which received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and School Library Journal, who said "This simple introduction to water is an ideal read-aloud for the youngest scientists". Other titles include A New Green Day which was a Junior Library Guild selection and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, as well as the ALA Notable Books Wait and Now. A recipient of the Prestigious Sendak Fellowship, she lives in Southern California. Visit her at Antoinetteportis.com