Great Children's Literature: A Handful of Sunshine

A few years ago, we received A Handful of Sunshineby Melanie Eclare for my daughter's birthday. This delightful gardening book follows the life of a gigantic sunflower grown by Tilda. Real photographs of Tilda's sunflower growing experience accompany the text of A Handful of Sunshine. I particularly like Tilda's sense of style with her rubber boots and striped sweater, as she digs and plants in the garden. She climbs a ladder to reach her sunflower head and discovers a toad in the garden. In the end, she saves the seeds from the sunflower she grew to plant next season. The end page of the book shows a simple time line in the life cycle of a sunflower. Planting sunflowers after reading A Handful of Sunshineis a natural extension to this great gardening book for children.