The Curious Garden

Written by Peter Brown

Narrated by Christina Moore

Dynamic author and illustrator Peter Brown creates books that keep young readers enthralled. The Curious Garden is a wonderful tale that will show kids the importance of taking care of the world around us. A young boy named Liam is exploring a dark, gray city when he finds a struggling garden. Every day, Liam waters and takes care of the small plot, and over time it blossoms and spreads to make the entire city green again.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9781470354480

Peter Brown

Peter Brown grew up in Hopewell, New Jersey, where he spent his time imagining and drawing silly characters. He got his B.F.A. in Illustration from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. After college Peter moved to Brooklyn, New York and spent several years painting backgrounds for animated TV shows. Peter went on to write and illustrate several books for children, including the Kate Greenaway-nominated Mr Tiger Goes Wild and My Teacher Is a Monster.

Reviews for The Curious Garden

[꿈꾸는쏘 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

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[carolynebegin · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This story follows a young boy, named Liam, as he tries to spread beauty throughout a city that has long been devoid of it. As he is exploring his city, he comes across some plants growing on some abandoned railroad tracks and decides to care for them. He maintains a small garden for the first season and after a long winter returns to continue his work. The plants need a lot of help but he soon notices that there are more and more plants popping up throughout the city! The beauty of nature has spread and so has the appreciation for it as gardeners also start popping up in the least expected places. What started out as a solo act brings beauty and joy to an entire city.The artwork is amazing and really shows the contrast between the city at the beginning and what it looks like after the plants have spread. There are several pages without words that express the theme well.

[jfdr_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a gorgeous and inspirational story about a young gardener, in a city with no garden. Hard work and love make the magic happen. Talk about how important gardens are in our life. 

[arielaver · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a fairy tale for any city. It begins, as any fairy tale should, with a sad state of affairs, and through patience, caring, and perseverance, works towards a happily-ever-after. The art in this book communicates as much, if not more than, the words, as it tells the story of Liam, a little boy in a sad and dreary city who decides to nurture a bit of land and ends up teaching the city through his own example how to garden.

[jillkennedy_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Liam, an imaginative and determined boy is out for a walk in his dreary city when he discovers an open stairway to an unused railroad bed. He runs up to explore and finds that there are wildflowers and plants growing! Excitedly Liam begins to tend to the plants: pruning, watering, and singing to them. It turns out that the plants are just as curious as Liam, and they begin to spread through the city. The bold illustrations, rendered in acrylic, are realistic. Placement and size vary: vignettes show Liam watering or admiring his plants and full or double page spreads provide a view of the changing city. The strength of the illustrations is such that the story is clearly understood even without text.Initially, dull shades of brown, gray, and muted brick reds portray an industrialized city. As Liam's plants begin to thrive, the colors become vibrant, bright, and happy. The sky is an eye-popping azure, the daisies are bright white, and the grasses are lush greens. While there still are smokestacks, abandoned cars, and boarded up buildings, the overall sense from the images is one of joy. Liam’s uplifting tale encourages a love of gardening. This book would be a super read-aloud for Pre-schoolers to 2nd graders and would be a good lead in for a discussion about the benefits of plants to our health and communities. A simple seed project or gardening activity would be a natural follow-up.

[scote23 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

#1 on Barnes & Noble's Top Ten Books for Children of 2009

I enjoyed it. A cute book about a city being taken over by nature.

[kylak_6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Read this once as a kid. It's even better the second time I read it. =)

[dreamer2000_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good book but it had an old book feel to me the pictures looked like they were from an old town and this book is less than a year old. I thought the pictures could have been brighter even though it was trying to de dreary. I didn't like the pictures in the comic line across the page

[szierdt_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Curious Gardener reflects the possibilities that gardens can create. A useful book for teaching about community, civic responsibility, and sustainablity. The author notes the question that led to the writing of this book, "what would happen if an entire city decided to trulu cooperate with nature? How would that city change? How would it all begin? Perfect book to take into the school garden.

[ebmcc · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

simply told, but beautiful concept of a how a garden can relieve a community of the drab industrial persona it takes on

[copad2thing · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The book is about Liam who is exploring his drab and encounters a struggling garden. He decides to help the plants grow.

[rgraf1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the story about little Liam who loves to be outside although he lives in a grey city without any trees or parks. One day he is taking a walk and on a railway that had stopped many years ago, so some plants are growing there now. Liam decides to take care of the plants and day by day it's getting more vegetated. Surprisingly after some time more and more people come to the railway to help with the plants. This is a very nice story showing how important it is to make a first step if you want to change something.

[hilarysi624 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In a dreary city, Liam’s curiosity and love of being outdoors lead him to discover and nurture a hidden garden on an abandoned elevated railway. Peter Brown’s timely picture book The Curious Garden explores the tenacity of nature and its effects on both structures and people around it. Brown endows his growing garden with the human characteristics of sleeping, patience, and curiosity, making it a rather apt friend for the somewhat solitary but adventurous Liam. The almost three dimensional illustrations lend a realism to the world Brown is creating, similar to a digitally animated movie. The pictures slowly brighten from muted grays and earth tones in the beginning to vibrant greens, reds, and yellows as the garden slowly takes over the city. Likewise, the inhabitants of the city also begin to venture out-of-doors as the garden spreads, until trees grow as tall as high-rises and sprout treehouses for children and gardens are planted on roofs of buildings. Brown’s author’s note explains his real-life inspiration for the story, perhaps providing inspiration for the readers themselves. This would be a great addition to school and public libraries both.

[kmunsey_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

story about how sad a dreary a life can be without nature. A small boy takes the sign of a garden to begin becoming active with nature and soon everyone else catches on. Very sweet book that can open a bigger dialogue in classrooms.

[bnlmoore · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is about Liam who lives in city of gardens. Most of the characters in this book do not roam outside but Liam does. Liam is an explorer and is a curious character. Liam finds an abandoned railway and he sees that there are plants that are not growing because of the old rails. Liam comes to the railway everyday to care for these plants and as the years go by he becomes a great gardener who has beautiful plants that he helped to grow.

[sabrina89_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really love this story about a boy who changed a grey, dreary city into a wonderful paradise full of flowers, grass and plants. All started on lonely railways where one little flower began to grow. But the boy worked so hard to make a garden out of this lonely railways. Soon every party of the city was full of flowers and plants and all the people really enjoyed it. So it was this little boy who made many people in the city happier.

[laurakurtz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this book. The world Liam lives in is all grey and ugly, no plants at all. But then while out exploring one day, he finds a struggling garden and decides to take care of it. As time passes, the garden spreads throughout the dark, gray city, transforming it into a lush, green world. The illustrations are beautiful, growing more and more lush as the garden takes over the city. The environmental themes of how much better plants make our lives, and the guerrilla gardening aspect too are awesome!

[readalouddenver · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A boy's curiosity leads him to the old abandoned train tracks where he spots a dying patch of plants that he falls under his gentle care and grows into a thriving garden. Over several years, his initial garden becomes the impetus for the greening and natural beautification of the entire city. The illustrations of passing of both seasons and time in this book help children develop narrative skills where they learn to describe the story in their own words.

[untitled841 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"The garden was especially curious about old, forgotten things."The story of a little boy and a garden that change the city they live in by exploring and growing.

[juju1220 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Love this book! I am a gardener myself so I enjoyed the extra steps that the format of this book provided. A story about a boy who turns a tiny area of greenery into a sprawled garden that takes over the city. I enjoyed the non texted pages that shows the garden in different stages throughout the city. The story about the boy who takes care of the growing garden even during the winter preparing his plans for the springtime. In the end I enjoyed how the gardening effect took on the city and new gardeners evolved!

[allawishus_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A boy who lives in a city without a lot of greenery finds an abandoned garden on the top of an old elevated train track. Over time he cultivates the garden and it grows and grows. As others follow his gardening example, gardens spread all over the city, transforming it into a garden paradise, ha ha.The illustrations are quite lovely, very calming. The variety of greens and vibrant blues make for very arresting illustrations, especially towards the end. There's also a somewhat sequential art/comic book feel to some of the illustrations. All in all it's very charming.

[lorinhigashi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Curious Garden is a heartwarming story about a little boy who decides to take matters into his own hands about the environment and his community. Liam wants to improve his city and does so by taking care of a garden he comes across, but not always being successful in the beginning. I appreciate that the story introduces this idea to young readers, as success does not always come during the first try. As the trend of being green and caring for the environment is increasing, this story is a great way to introduce young readers to this concept and also becoming leaders in their own community. The illustrations are enhance the story with pretty backgrounds and becoming more colorful and vibrant as Liam's garden continues to grow.

[carolcavedon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A picture book about a boy that decides to plant a garden and spreads color to a gray city. Beautiful book to teach about urban gardening, what seeds need to grow, changes in the seasons, etc.Reading Journal: counts as 1 Picture Book.