In the introduction, she writes about growing up with garden-loving parents, an obsession she could not understand – until she moved into her first house: My nerves couldn’t take the strain of trying to beat him to an imaginary draw every time I wanted to snap a twig.’) and wonderfully personal musings about how she came to love and what she continues to love about gardening. There are practical tips (including detailed notes at the end of each section as to garden tasks that should be done that month), garden-related opinions (‘ I’ve never graduated to a holster for my secateurs. The articles are arranged into 12 sections, one for each month, and are wonderfully varied. Pavord, in this excellent collection of articles from her newspaper column, does just that. But they will not tell me when to prune what or give deep consideration to the merits of various types of potatoes. Those books seek to entertain and succeed in doing so. Oh yes, Nichols may rhapsodize on the virtues of various species of Berberis but does he tell you how to care for them? No. I love the comedy of Čapek’s The Gardener’s Year and the romance of books that tell about the makings of a garden (like Merry Hall, Paths of Desire, and Elizabeth and Her German Garden) but none of those attempt to give any sort of guidance. White Honor, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book award, a Children’s Choice Award for Illustrator of the Year, two Irma Black Honors, and five New York Times bestsellers.Of all the gardening books I’ve read over the last few years, The Curious Gardener by Anna Pavord is by far the most practical. Peter’s books have earned him numerous honors, including a Caldecott Honor (2013) for Creepy Carrots!, two E.B. Peter quickly signed up his second and third books, and his career as an author and illustrator of children’s books was under way. He was working on animated TV shows when he signed a book deal to write and illustrate his first picture book, Flight of the Dodo.

While studying illustration at Art Center College of Design, Peter’s love of both words and pictures led him to take several courses on children’s books, and before long he knew he’d found his calling.Īfter graduating from Art Center Peter moved to New York City to be closer to the publishing industry. Then, as a teenager, he fell in love with writing, and told his tales with words. Growing up in New Jersey, he told stories by drawing whimsical characters and scenes from his imagination. Peter Brown is an American writer and illustrator who is best known for children's picture books. Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

The curious garden 2010