Kindergarten-Grade 2-This gracefully written ecological and spiritual fable tells of the gardens of the earth, planted by the Great Maker in woodlands, prairies, and oceans, and given to humans to tend to and enjoy. Then people grow greedy, despoiling nature to build elaborate cities filled with luxuries. From high in her palace home, a little girl gazes down at the devastation and weeps, until the Maker's voice whispers that she must plant and nurture a seed she will find lying on the ground. It flourishes, growing into a gigantic tree that shelters all of the dispossessed animals and birds and reaches all the way to the Great Maker's garden paradise in Heaven, perhaps a metaphor for our needful reclamation of the earth today. As certain actions, thoughts, and sounds are expressed, the simple, poetic text often inventively swoops and ripples across the double-page, decorative watercolor illustrations that combine the meticulous elegance of Chinese brush painting with the exuberance of folk art.

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