By Kate Messner
A child and their grandmother plant and tend a garden across a whole year, while the book keeps ducking underground to show the busy hidden world of bugs and roots and burrowing animals down in the dirt.
A child spends the growing season working in the garden with Nana, and the whole book keeps splitting in two: up in the garden there are seeds to plant, sprouts to water, vegetables to pick, and down in the dirt there's a whole secret world going on at the same time, worms and pill bugs and beetles and a garter snake and the roots pushing down. It follows spring to fall, planting to harvest to the garden going to sleep for winter, so your child sees the year go all the way around and understands what's happening underneath the part you can see.
It scratches exactly the itch of a child who loves to dig and wants to know what's down there. The story stays gentle and grandmother-warm, but it's packed with accurate nature underneath, so a bug-obsessed child gets real substance and a cozy child gets a sweet year with Nana. The seasons structure gives it a satisfying shape, ending with the garden tucked in for winter and the promise it'll all come back.