Premium Members Get 10% Off and Earn Rewards Find Out More

The Little Gardener

Add to Wishlist

The Little Gardener

Hardcover(New)

$17.99

Hardcover(New)
$17.99

SHIP THIS ITEM

Qualifies for Free Shipping
PICK UP IN STORE
Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Available within 2 business hours

Want it Today?
Check Store Availability

Related collections and offers

Want it Today?
Check Store Availability

Overview

Celebrate the tender story The Little Gardener with a beautiful new cover in the updated 2018 edition!

There was once a little gardener and his garden meant everything to him. He worked hard, very hard, but he was just too little (or at least he felt he was).

In this gentle, beautiful tale, Emily Hughes, the celebrated author of Wild, departs from the larger than life Wild-girl of her debut to pursue a littler than life Gardener, in a story that teaches us just how important it is to persist and try, no matter what the odds.

With delicately woven tapestries of illustrated magic, Hughes once again transports us to a world not unlike our own, while still brimming with fantasy and wonder.

Product Details
About the Author

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781912497997
Publisher:	Flying Eye Books Ltd.
Publication date:	07/03/2018
Edition description:	New
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD380L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Emily Hughes was born in Hawaii but lives and works in the United Kingdom. She is inspired by Chinese cinema and illustrators such as Blair Lent and Gyo Fujikawa. Her work has been exhibited across the capital and her book Nana Shaped Like a Banana came second in the 2012 Macmillan Prize for Children's Picture Books. Her first picture book has been highly successful in bookshops and libraries across the United States and United Kingdom.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Page 1 of

Editorial Reviews

"Inspired by a single glorious flower, a Tom Thumb-like gardener toils himself into exhaustion in his attempts to tame enormous weeds and clear the litter from his property. When he finally sleeps in his cozy straw cottage, a regular-size girl is motivated by the same bloom, then takes over the task. When the title character wakes, he and his helper relish the resulting bursts of flora, especially the plant they first admired. Hughes uses minimal text and a dark palette to great effect. The lush wilderness, likely inspired by her Hawaiian background, luckily remains even in the completed garden. VERDICT A gentle fairy tale, the story encourages tenacity and speaks to the value of teamwork and environmental stewardship." —School Library Journal

Emily Hughes' spare prose allows her gorgeous artwork to tell the story of the gardener and the single flower that brings him inspiration and hope. Layered with meaning, this is a book worth lingering over and cherishing.
—NPR, Best Books 2015

Through economical text and luscious illustrations, Hughes captures the daunting challenge (and sometimes despair) of environmental stewardship. However, she ends her story on a hopeful note as the Little Gardener's seemingly futile efforts inspire others to take up the cause.
—Huffington Post, Best Picture Books of 2015

It’s a tender metaphor for the miracle of gardening. Hughes’s rich, rhythmic storytelling voice and dark tapestry spreads carry perennial magic.
—Publisher’s Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

Through economical text and luscious illustrations, Hughes captures the daunting challenge (and sometimes despair) of environmental stewardship. However, she ends her story on a hopeful note as the Little Gardener's seemingly futile efforts inspire others to take up the cause.
—Huffington Post

A lovely visual tribute to the persistent hard work behind every flourishing garden.
—Kirkus Reviews

What Hughes does with these colored-pencil illustrations is impressive. Brimming with details and earthy vibrance, they are more than up to the task of carrying the story visually. The garden setting also lends itself to some "seek and find" moments, when young readers will be looking closely to spot the gardener among the flora. It’s a little story about some pretty big emotions: persistence, dedication, and love. It’s also a book that might make you cry happy tears during story time. A beauty.
Scope Notes, Best New Book

[...] charming, immeasurably sweet [...] Hughes’s illustrations, vibrant and deeply alive, capture that strange tapestry of tenderness and wilderness of which the human soul is woven. [...] a heartwarming delight in its entirety [...]
Scope Notes, Best New Book

The Little Gardener by Emily Hughes is a miracle of a picture book. Its stunning lush, rough, almost jagged, illustrations paired with a simple, striking narrative holds an incredible power to focus its readers onto this single story and let the rest of the world fade away.
—The Picture Book Review

The Little Gardner is different from Wild on the surface, but it still shows the affinity children have with nature and wild things. […] This story subtly validates the experience of failure while keeping a sense of hope blooming. I’m very impressed at how Hughes addresses the deep feelings of insecurity children have. In The Little Gardner, she shows how the efforts little ones make, even if they don’t entirely succeed, inspire those bigger than they are. In The Little Gardner, she shows how befriending nature and tending to a garden keeps hope in your heart.
—Joy Corcoran

The images are evocative and gorgeous, reminding me of Maurice Sendak in terms of shapes and color choices. Wild and moving that will enthrall readers young and old as they explore the garden of the littlest gardener and see what he created in this world around him.
—Andrew Shuping, Musing Librarian Reviews

"Have you ever opened a book and just felt mesmerized by the art and attention to detail? Emily Hughes gorgeously illustrated children’s books are precisely that. They are simple stories completely elevated by her distinctive, detailed artwork. There’s so much of story-telling and setting of the scene that are hidden in the detail of her illustration. The words are sparse and only a few making it easy for new readers to absorb the essence of the story without feeling overwhelmed. When I re-read her books, I was able to glean even more nuance and rich detail captured in her drawings. The illustrations are so wonderfully vivid that I would totally love to have some of the spreads framed and hung on my wall."
—Varsha Ravi, Between Bookends

“In this beautifully gentle tale, Emily Hughes, the celebrated author of Wild, once again transports us to a world not unlike our own, but still brimming with fantasy and wonder.”
—Koala Baby Book Library

From the Publisher

Hughes's illustrations thrum with life. The drawings are a tangle of Gauguin and Rousseau and botanical journals. They remind me of a rain forest floor—the closer you look, the more you see until the whole image seems to writhe.

The New York Times Book Review - Sophie Blackall

★ 05/18/2015
Unfolding on a more intimate scale than her debut, Wild (2013), Hughes’s story stars a diminutive gardener in a straw hat and overalls who struggles to keep up with the weeds in his garden. Since he’s the size of a mouse, he has to chop them down like trees, and it’s slow going. Hughes paints a single, magnificent close-up of the scarlet zinnia that’s the boy’s only success: “It was alive and wonderful. It gave the gardener hope and it made him work even harder.” Exhausted, he falls asleep, breathing a fervent wish through the window of his straw hut: “I wish I had a bit of help.” The glorious zinnia draws the attention of two human children; when the gardener wakes, the weeds are gone, and the garden is full of bloom. In this inversion of “The Elves and the Shoemaker,” the big and strong help the small and weak, and the gardener never discovers how his garden has become so beautiful. It’s a tender metaphor for of the miracle of gardening. Hughes’s rich, rhythmic storytelling voice and dark tapestry spreads carry perennial magic. Ages 3–7. Agent: Stephen Barr, Writers House. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

06/01/2015
PreS-Gr 1—Inspired by a single glorious flower, a Tom Thumb-like gardener toils himself into exhaustion in his attempts to tame enormous weeds and clear the litter from his property. When he finally sleeps in his cozy straw cottage, a regular-size girl is motivated by the same bloom, then takes over the task. When the title character wakes, he and his helper relish the resulting bursts of flora, especially the plant they first admired. Hughes uses minimal text and a dark palette to great effect. The lush wilderness, likely inspired by her Hawaiian background, luckily remains even in the completed garden. VERDICT A gentle fairy tale, the story encourages tenacity and speaks to the value of teamwork and environmental stewardship.—Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA

School Library Journal

2015-04-15
A lad scarcely bigger than his pet worm struggles to maintain a large garden by himself. The garden "didn't look like much, / but it meant everything to its gardener. // It was his home. It was his supper. / It was his joy." Lushly painted primordial plant forms surround the boy's tiny thatched cottage; stylized depictions suggest proliferating invaders like thistle and plantain. As undesirables multiply and insects infest, the harvest worsens. The boy despairs: "he wasn't much good at gardening. // … // He was just too little." Dispatching an unheard wish for "a bit of help" into the night, the overworked lad sleeps for a month. His prized inspiration—a solitary red zinnia—also charms a "someone"—a full-sized, brown-skinned girl who lives nearby. "It was alive and wonderful. / It gave the someone hope. It made the someone want to work harder." Several spreads showcase the transformation surrounding the slumbering boy as the girl weeds, sows, and transplants. The little gardener awakens to a colorful summer landscape of blooms, butterflies, even an increasing worm population. The narrative ends by coyly inverting its first lines: "He doesn't look like much, but he means everything to his garden." Given the girl's major role, the contrivance doesn't ring true. Hughes' paintings trump her story, depicting the garden's renewal through color and form. A lovely visual tribute to the persistent hard work behind every flourishing garden. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews

The Little Gardener

The Little Gardener

Hardcover(New)

Hardcover(New)

Related collections and offers

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Customer Reviews

Related Searches

Explore More Items

Related collections and offers

Overview

Product Details

About the Author

Related Subjects

Customer Reviews