A Picture Book a Day for a Year: Day 81

Picture Book: The Green Truck Garden Giveaway: A Neighborhood Story & Almanac

Author: Jacqueline Briggs Martin

Illustrator:  Alec Gillman

Summary: This picture book begins with a green truck entering a dilapidated & littered neighborhood. Then the truck’s occupants get out and announce, “We have gardens to give away and Green Truck Almanacs.” So begins a transformation of this neighborhood. At first they meet resistance from 3 characters with 3 different excuses, but eventually the neighbors are won over by the beauty and delight of the growing plants. Throughout the book are windows of interesting facts and helpful hints about gardening from the Green Truck Almanac.

Hanna’s Comments: If you are looking to encourage your family, students, or religious community to experience God’s blessings through gardening, this book would be a great place to start. It could also serve as inspiration for a service project in the form of a community garden.

Publisher & Date of Publication: Simon & Schuster, 1991

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 6 and up, 1^st and up

# of Pages: 32

Available in Spanish? Not at present

Formats other than Book: None at present

PBT Category: Pre 2K

PBT Topics this Book Connects with: abundance/bounty, action, adaptation/assimilation, attentiveness/observation/seeing, beauty, beginnings/morning, blessings, body of Christ, caring/tending, care of creation, community, conversion, creation, discovery/invention, eggs/seeds, emotions/feelings, the environment/nature, feasting/food/hunger/nutrition, flowers/leaves/seeds, gardening/planting/pruning/sowing, generosity/giving/offering/stewardship, gentleness/meekness, gladness/happiness, God’s care/providence, God’s nature, harvest, home, labor/work, laziness/sloth, life, manna, neighbors, neighborhood, nurturing, outreach, participation, partners/teamwork, passion, perspective, prevenient grace, renewal/restoration, response to God, satisfaction, servant hood/service/serving, sharing, time/timing/over time, transformation, treasure

Scripture Connections: Garden of Eden (Genesis 1:29-31); seed parables (Matthew 13)              

Idea(s) for Application: This would be a wonderful book for a religious school to use when studying the benefits and science of gardens, tying it to God’s creative blessings for us.