A Picture Book a Day for a Year: Day 288

Picture Book: Max’s Magic Seeds

Author: Geraldine Elschner

Illustrator: Jean-Pierre Corderoch

Summary: At his birthday party, Max is anxiously awaiting his uncle’s arrival. His uncle is always late, but Max doesn’t mind since he receives the funniest gift from Uncle Bill who is a botanist. Upon arrival, Uncle Bill sneaks a huge bag of seeds out of his vehicle and tells Max to secretly scatter the seeds as he walks to and from school so that Max’s walk to school will become more interesting. Max, who doesn’t like going to school, does as Uncle Bill suggests. Soon Max’s path to school, classroom, attitude toward school, and even his town are transformed. Max assumes his role in the town’s beautification is unknown, until then the town wins “The Power of Flowers” contest. Everyone gathers for the celebration, and Max is surprised to be honored as the town’s flower magician. How was his role discovered? The officials simply followed the path of beautiful flowers to Max’s house.

Hanna’s Comments: Seeds offer such rich potential for theological conversation, especially with children who are growing and changing themselves. In this story, seeds transform not only a town but Max’s attitude toward school and his relationships there. Talk about transformation as you read this story and encourage your listeners to consider how they might secretly encourage some transformation along their daily paths or engage in random acts of kindness and watch for the results. This book could also connect with ideas of incidental evangelism or subtle witnessing with the good that we do.

Original Publisher & Date of Publication: Penguin, 2007

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 4 and up, Pre and up

# of Pages: 32

Available in Spanish? Not at present

Formats other than Book: None at present

PBT Category: Post 2K  

PBT Topics this Book connects with: abundance/bounty, action, beauty, blessings, change, eggs/seeds, encouragement, the environment/nature, evangelism, flowers/leaves/trees, gardening/planting/pruning/sowing, gifts/giftedness/talents, harvest, mystery, neighborhood, power, secrets, surprise, transformation, witness

Scripture Connections: Parable of the Sower/Four soils (Luke 8:4-15); it is more blessed to give then to receive (Acts 20:35)

Idea(s) for Application: Read this book to children and talk about how God encourages our random acts of kindness and how they can be transformative to the receivers and the giver.