By Eric Carle
One tiny seed rides the autumn wind with a crowd of bigger seeds, and against all odds it's the little one that survives to grow into a giant flower and start the whole cycle over.
In autumn the wind lifts a handful of seeds into the air, and the smallest one goes along with them. Season by season the book follows what happens to each seed: one flies too high and burns near the sun, one lands in the ocean, one falls in the desert, one gets eaten by a bird, one sprouts fast but gets stepped on. The tiny seed keeps up as best it can, lands late, and finally takes root. It grows slowly, becomes a giant flower taller than the houses, and when fall comes again its own seeds float off on the wind to begin the story once more. It's the plant life cycle told as a quiet little adventure with a clear underdog to root for.
It hands a very young child real botany, seeds travel, most don't make it, the ones that do grow and scatter more, without ever feeling like a lesson, because it's wrapped around an underdog your child is desperate to see win. The losses along the way are gentle and matter-of-fact, part of how nature works, which makes it a safe first brush with the idea that not everything survives. Carle's art is the same beloved collage as The Very Hungry Caterpillar, so it feels familiar and warm.