"Shiny, brown./ Bumpy crown./ What will grow?/ Oak tree."
"Fluffy, white./ Taking flight./ What will grow?/ Dandelions."
What Will Grow? is a joyful, rhyming picture book about the miraculous nature of seeds from the creative team behind What Will Hatch?: Jennifer Ward (Feathers and Hair: What Animals Wear; Mama Built a Little Nest) and illustrator Susie Ghahremani. Each seed-rooted riddle is illustrated by a lovely, lush and leafy gouache-on-wood, double-page spread featuring some curious, usually hungry, animal--be it deer, squirrel or rabbit--and always, always a ladybug hiding in some corner for a wee reader to spot. In one spread ("Very tiny. Then so viny!"), a fox bites into a tomato, ripe on the vine, sprouted from pale and tiny seeds, also pictured. In another, a yellow bird clamps a sunflower seed in its beak ("Stripy black./ Crunchy snack."). What will grow? A towering, beautiful sunflower, so tall that readers have to open up the vertical gatefold to reveal its full glory. The rabbit-inhabited carrot spread is also particularly masterful, as the gatefold opens down to show the "Flowery fruit/ Orange root" carrots growing underground. And, oh, that serene and gorgeous transformation from pinecone to pine tree!
The inviting pages crescendo to a double-page, rainbow-arched garden at the end, and a planting how-to and a "seed to plant" illustration further illuminate the cyclical nature of seeds, plants and flowers. Don't let its deceptively humble subject fool you; this is a mighty oak of a book. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness