(2009) by Peter Brown
Spring is springing. Earth Day is approaching. Hope is needed.
What better time to talk about one of my favorite picture books – A Curious Garden!
In this well-loved picture book, published in 2009, young Liam lives in a dreary city devoid of any greenery. Nevertheless, Liam still loves to be outside, and one day he discovers a small patch of garden up on the abandoned railway. The plants are in need of help though, so Liam sets to work. Despite having no gardening knowledge, Liam continues to show up and do his best. He makes mistakes and learns as he goes, but with his attention and care, the garden quickly grows and expands. Eventually, the city is transformed to a space where Nature is thriving and people are gathering. There is a powerful visual contrast between the opening spread of pages and the closing ones. This city has been forever changed.
The Curious Garden is a book of hope and resilience – The resilience of Nature and its ability to bounce back. The resilience of people who may have given up and accepted a certain way of being but were willing to come out of that. And the resilience Liam shows as he continues to show up for his garden despite setbacks.
This is also a gorgeous reminder to us all that our small actions can have huge ripple effects. I love that Liam didn’t set out to ‘save’ his entire city. He simply saw an area that needed help and he helped. And those actions created this force for positive change in his city. People began coming out of their houses and tending their own gardens and meeting each other. The city finds alternative energy solutions and becomes a beautiful landscape of people and Nature working together.
The author, Peter Brown, shares a little bit about his inspiration for the story in the back of the book. The Highline in New York City was an abandoned elevated railway. It last ran in 1980 and as it sat, unused, Nature began to take over. When the railway stretch was set to be demolished, two people decided that this space would make a wonderful public park. As the community and others gathered behind this idea, the dream eventually became a reality in 2009. The Highline is now a public park and walking path in Manhattan’s West Side. (links below)
I love that the story of Liam’s journey mirrors this real-life journey so wonderfully. How incredible that the idea or dream or actions of a select one or two people can make so much positive change for a city and community.
I’m a huge believer that picture books are for everyone, and this is one I highly recommend for all.
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Author/Illustrator
Downloadable Curious Garden poster from Peter Brown’s site
Video:
Other Related Links:
Photos of the abandoned railway
The wonderful Emily Arrow has a song about The Curious Garden
[For those of you who watched the YouTube video I made – I went down a bunch of rabbit holes, as usual, while preparing this post and video. If you also like to dork out: The music that I play in the video, “Plaisir d’Amour”, was written in 1784 by Jean-Paul-Egide Martini (with this simple arrangement of it that I play written by Dennis Alexander). It was the basis for the song, “I Can’t Help Falling in Love,” originally sung by Elvis in 1962. I found it so interesting that the original lyrics of this Elvis song were written to be sung by a woman (but written by men… Typical) and it originally said, “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with Him.” This makes so much more sense since the lines ending with “in” and “sin” never seemed to fit into a rhyming scheme. Although, I guess the later line that ends in “too” does fit. Anyway, there are a zillion covers of this song. I’m just waiting for the “wise men” line to be updated to “wise ones.”]