A Picture Book a Day for a Year: Day 352

Dynamic Duo: Book 1

Picture Book: A Seed is Sleepy

Author: Dianna Hutts Aston

Illustrator: Sylvia Long

Summary: This informative and striking picture book offers pictorial details and fun facts about a wide variety of seeds in a range of sizes, textures, structures, colors, idiosyncrasies, transport methods, and habitats. You’ll find the anatomy of a seed and the life cycles of several common seeds. There are some anecdotes such as the story of an ancient seed, unearthed in an archeological dig, that surprised the scientists by sprouting! The title comes from the fact that most seeds are dormant for a season or more.  

Hanna’s Comments: This picture book is one of a beautiful series of 6. Each offers gorgeous details and facts about its subject, even on the end papers. More books may follow. Here are the other titles, all of which have central subjects that are often spiritual or religious themes:

A Nest is Noisy

A Butterfly is Patient

A Rock is Lively

An Egg is Quiet
A Beetle is Shy

Remember, this type of non-fiction book is perfect for doing some creative program planning around a particular scriptural theme.This is the first offering in a PBT Dynamic Duo about seeds. Tomorrow’s book is a narrative from the point of view of a moonflower seed.

Original Publisher & Date of Publication: Chronicle Books, 2007

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 5 and up, K and up

# of Pages: 40 

Available in Spanish? Not at present

Formats other than Book: Tablet 

PBT Category: Non-fiction, Post 2K

PBT Topics this Book connects with: abundance/bounty, awe, beauty, beginnings/morning, blessing, breath/breathing/wind, caring/tending, dependence/interdependence, diversity, dying, eggs/seeds, the environment/nature, evangelism, faith/faithfulness, flowers/leaves/trees, fruit/fruit of the Spirit, gardening/planting/pruning/sowing, growing up/growth, hope, land/mountains/soil, patience, perseverance, purpose, quiet/rest/silence/sleep, transformation, variety, waiting, wonder

Scripture Connections: I have given you every plant yielding seed… and every tree with seed in its fruit. (Genesis 1:29); the seed parables (Matthew 13); unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24); whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully (2 Corinthians 9:6)

Idea(s) for Application: Use this picture book when researching and planning lessons about how seeds are viewed symbolically in the Holy Scriptures or in a personal faith journey.