A seed grows

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Title :

A seed grows / Antoinette Portis.

Title:

A seed grows

Author:

Portis, Antoinette

Format:

Books

Physical Description:

1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations ; 24 x 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

ISBN:

9780823448920

Production / Publication Information:

New York : Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, [2022]

General Note:

"A Neal Porter book"

Summary:

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

Bibliography note:

Includes bibliographical references.

Target audience note:

Ages 4 to 8

Language:

English

Subject Term:

Sunflowers -- Growth -- Juvenile literature.

Seeds -- Growth -- Juvenile literature.

Plant life cycles -- Juvenile literature.

SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Botany.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Material Type	Library	Call Number	Item Barcode	Location
Book	Searching... Amesbury Public Library	J575.6 POR	32114002771500	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Andover - Memorial Hall Library Children's Room	JE POR / SPRING	31330009186374	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Billerica Public Library	E/POR	33934004548682	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Boxford Town Library	EJ POR	32115002178596	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Burlington Public Library	E PORTIS	32116003895139	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Carlisle - Gleason Public Library	J 575.68 POR	32117002135857	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Chelmsford Public Library	JJ/PORTIS	31480011595797	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Essex - T.O.H.P. Burnham Free Library	E POR	32119000456137	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Georgetown Peabody Library	JJ PORTIS	32120001403664	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Groton Public Library	JJ NATURE POR	37003701982689	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Groveland - Langley-Adams Library	JE POR	32121000961405	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Hamilton-Wenham Public Library	JJ POR	30470002028479	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Haverhill Public Library	J/PIC/PORTIS	31479007604027	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Ipswich Public Library	JE PORTIS	32122002968356	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Littleton - Reuben Hoar Library	J A PORTIS	39965002749694	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Lowell - Pollard Memorial Library	JE POR	31481005653501	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Lowell - Pollard Memorial Library	JE POR	31481005691741	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Lowell - Pollard Memorial Library	JE POR	31481005691758	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Manchester-by-the-Sea Public Library	JJ POR	32124002119345	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Methuen - Nevins Memorial Library	J-ER POR	31548003418689	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Middleton - Flint Public Library	JJ POR	32126001794226	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Newburyport Public Library	J PO / PICTURE	32128004094372	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... North Andover - Stevens Memorial Library	JP NATURE PLANTS POR	31478003788719	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... North Reading - Flint Memorial Library	JJ POR	31550002525860	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Rockport Public Library	J PS PORTIS	32129002513421	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Rowley Public Library	E POR	32130001033551	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Salisbury Public Library	J575.6 POR	32131000962311	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Tewksbury Public Library	JJ POR	32132003340026	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Topsfield Town Library	JJ PORTIS	32133002630110	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Tyngsborough Public Library	J/575.68/PORTI	32137002197657	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... West Newbury - G.A.R. Memorial Library	JJ POR	32135001566278	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Westford - J.V. Fletcher Library	E PORTIS	31990005124586	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Wilmington Memorial Library	PICTURE BOOK PORTIS	32136003565722	Searching... Unknown

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!

An American Library Association Notable Children's Book
A CALIBA Golden Poppy Award Finalist
A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
A Horn Book Fanfare Title

Reviews (5)

School Library Journal Review

PreS-Gr 1--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. A seed grows, but on the title page that seed is still in the bird's beak. It falls, settles into the soil, and sun and rain are simply present, part of the process. Soil, sun, water, air, and the seed takes root, grows tall, forms a bud, blossoms into more seeds, which feed more birds, and the cycle is complete. This approach to nature requires no embellishment, no anthropomorphizing, no cheerleading to lure in young eyes. Four- to five-word sentences on the left set off every gemlike illustration on the right, breaking format only when the book needs to be turned sideways so that the full glory of the sunflower's height can be revealed. The back matter includes charming layouts of the parts of the seed and root, what the seed needs to sprout, and the life cycle of the sunflower plant. Complicated scientific principles are rendered simply and gracefully in scenes that seem to deliver a dose of Vitamin D. VERDICT As with all of Portis's books, natural science is served sunny-side up, without a word out of place, in this essential guide.--Kimberly Olson Fakih

Publisher's Weekly 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. On each page, a term on the verso corresponds in hue with an image on the recto, focusing the reader's attention on a single visual component. The word seed, for example, written in black, attends the arrival of a striped black sunflower shell at right ("A seed falls"). A page turn later, a brown-hued soil faces its referent, in which the seed nestles. And the font size of a bright green grows enlarges over several spreads as the seedling does the same. But the pages offer much more than an experiential play-by-play for youngest readers. In addition to incorporating mention of the seedling's early needs (soil, sun, rain) and maturation phases (bud, flower, seed), text and image hint at the plant's external effects (for those who "nest in the leaves// in the tops of trees")--and, poignantly, its place as participant in the natural world. It's a volume almost as jam-packed as a seed itself. Contextualizing back matter concludes. Ages 3--6. (June)

Horn Book Review

With her latest science-focused picture book, Portis (Hey, Water!, rev. 3/19) continues to introduce very young readers and listeners to the wonders of nature. Here she details the life cycle of a sunflower in ten sequential steps. Each left-hand page features a single phrase ("a seed falls" / "and settles in the soil"), with the facing page showing a bright, uncluttered illustration mirroring the action. The story's climax -- the blossoming of a flower -- is shown in a gorgeous vertical spread that lifts up to announce this glorious event. The patterned text creates an internal rhythm pleasant to hear, while the single phrases on each line help emergent readers focus on both the flow and meaning of the words. Key words (seed, soil, sun, rain) are color coded to the accompanying illustration, thus reinforcing the use of context clues. The narrative concludes with birds dispersing the seeds from our flower and beginning the process anew. Back matter consists of a pictorial life cycle of the sunflower, truncating the steps from the text to present a helpful visual capture of the book's information. An accompanying diagram of the parts of a sunflower may require adult guidance, as may two charts: one showing the parts of a seed and the other listing what seeds need to sprout. A bibliography completes the book. Clear, engaging, beautiful, and perfectly pitched to its young audience -- simply brilliant. Betty Carter May/June 2022 p.167(c) Copyright 2022. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Review

A piecemeal overview of the life cycle of a plant. Using her signature minimalist prose and stripped-down art, Portis follows the journey of a sunflower seed from the moment it "settles into the soil" to its emergence as a blossom that eventually parents new sunflower plants. The entire text consists of one long sentence, broken up into fragments across the book's spreads. Except for a few well-chosen double-page illustrations, the full-color artwork appears on the recto pages while the text appears on the verso pages. Readers watch as sunshine and rain help the seed grow into a bud and then a tall flower whose grandeur and height are accentuated by a switch from a horizontal page layout to a vertical one. The flower produces seeds, which are dispersed by birds after they feed, beginning the process of new plant growth all over again. The book offers a close-up look at plant reproduction using simple, accessible language that preschoolers can understand. Youngsters will feel a sense of awe as they witness the magic of a seed's first tender shoot and the symbiosis of nature. The backmatter uses spot art to highlight the parts of a sunflower seed and plant and four things that "the seed needs to sprout"; it also includes a diagram of the sunflower's life cycle. An understated, useful primer on one of nature's miraculous cycles. (Informational picture book. 3-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Using minimal text and simple, stylized illustrations, Portis (Hey, Water, 2019) details the life cycle of a sunflower from sprouting and growth to blooming and seed formation to seed dispersal and the sprouting of the next generation. "A seed falls / and settles into the soil / and the sun shines / and the rain comes down / and the seed sprouts." The often--lyrical text (actually one long sentence) makes use of large fonts to emphasize key terms: seed, soil, sun, rain, sprouts, and so on. One spread includes a vertical gatefold that shows a mature sunflower atop this very tall plant. Bright colors appear throughout--in particular, blue skies, green leaves, and the striking yellow bloom. Minimalist backgrounds help to focus reader attention on the plant itself, and several small blue birds appear periodically, aiding in seed dispersal and adding interest to these attractive illustrations. Back matter includes additional sunflower facts, a life-cycle chart, and further resources. An appealing addition to the STEM shelf and a useful supplement to primary science lessons.