THE TINY SEED

As a number of seeds blow in the autumn wind, one tiny seed floats behind the rest. "Will it be able to keep up with the others? And where are they all going?" Narrator Jennifer Jiles establishes both a tone of wonder and a sense of character. Throughout the book, Eric Carle's collages and story cover a lot of territory--multiple habitats, four seasons, the life cycle of seeds, and the threats of a hungry bird, a "big, fat weed," and a careless human. Jiles's fluid narration balances science and story, the book's concepts and its character. The tiny seed endures and by book's end is "a big and beautiful flower" that releases its own seeds, completing a circle easily understood by young children. S.W. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2016]