Spring!
Here’s the last teen book for a while:
Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes Twelve-year-old Martha is packing to go on her annual visit to her grandmother’s beach home when the mother of a classmate who was recently killed in a traffic accident stops by with a note written by the dead girl. Olive wrote about her dreams: to visit the ocean, and to be friends with Martha. Suddenly, Martha’s ordinary summer is turning out not to be so ordinary. This novel had the potential to be really depressing, but instead is a beautiful reflection about life from a girl who is just discovering what it means to be truly alive. Written in short, poetic chapters, Olive’s Ocean shines like the sun through polished sea glass.
It’s spring. I admit, I haven’t yet done much more than pull up the new crop of thistles from the garden, but I have Plans. It’s the first time we’ve ever had our own garden, and it’s dreadfully exciting. So here are a couple of gardening books.
The Weekend Garden Guide: Work-Saving Ways to a Beautiful Backyard by Susan A. Roth I may have mentioned things about not having lots of time. I love flowers, and beautiful gardens, but really I have neither the time nor the inclination to spend all my free time in the summer heat trying to keep a garden going. This book was a revelation! Roth starts with general ways to keep a garden low-maintenance (and even low-cost!), and then goes through different types of gardens, listing specific plants to use and to avoid. This ends up with a garden that may not be native plants, but is well suited for its particular environment. One note: it’s over 10 years old now, and a couple of the species she recommends are now considered invasive. Also, the book presupposes a fair amount of garden knowledge, but even with my very limited garden experience, I was able to understand it. These minor quibbles aside, I’ll probably buy a copy to take to the nursery with me.
Gardening for Dummies by Michael MacCaskey This one is gardening basics and terminology. It is great at covering the basics, and I was especially impressed at their coverage of chemical use in the garden. They favor low-impact methods, and tell you when not to panic, and which guns to bring out in which order and when. Compared with The Weekend Garden Guide, unsurprisingly, it focused much less on how hard individual plants are to take care of. Since I am now determined to have an easy-care garden, I’m now less enthused by this book. But, really, as one expects from the series, it’s a fine and easy-to-understand introduction to gardening.
Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes Twelve-year-old Martha is packing to go on her annual visit to her grandmother’s beach home when the mother of a classmate who was recently killed in a traffic accident stops by with a note written by the dead girl. Olive wrote about her dreams: to visit the ocean, and to be friends with Martha. Suddenly, Martha’s ordinary summer is turning out not to be so ordinary. This novel had the potential to be really depressing, but instead is a beautiful reflection about life from a girl who is just discovering what it means to be truly alive. Written in short, poetic chapters, Olive’s Ocean shines like the sun through polished sea glass.
It’s spring. I admit, I haven’t yet done much more than pull up the new crop of thistles from the garden, but I have Plans. It’s the first time we’ve ever had our own garden, and it’s dreadfully exciting. So here are a couple of gardening books.
The Weekend Garden Guide: Work-Saving Ways to a Beautiful Backyard by Susan A. Roth I may have mentioned things about not having lots of time. I love flowers, and beautiful gardens, but really I have neither the time nor the inclination to spend all my free time in the summer heat trying to keep a garden going. This book was a revelation! Roth starts with general ways to keep a garden low-maintenance (and even low-cost!), and then goes through different types of gardens, listing specific plants to use and to avoid. This ends up with a garden that may not be native plants, but is well suited for its particular environment. One note: it’s over 10 years old now, and a couple of the species she recommends are now considered invasive. Also, the book presupposes a fair amount of garden knowledge, but even with my very limited garden experience, I was able to understand it. These minor quibbles aside, I’ll probably buy a copy to take to the nursery with me.
Gardening for Dummies by Michael MacCaskey This one is gardening basics and terminology. It is great at covering the basics, and I was especially impressed at their coverage of chemical use in the garden. They favor low-impact methods, and tell you when not to panic, and which guns to bring out in which order and when. Compared with The Weekend Garden Guide, unsurprisingly, it focused much less on how hard individual plants are to take care of. Since I am now determined to have an easy-care garden, I’m now less enthused by this book. But, really, as one expects from the series, it’s a fine and easy-to-understand introduction to gardening.