Spring Into Reading These Book Will Get Your Children Thinking About Outdoor Fun

If you can’t tell it’s spring by looking out the window, you can tell by glancing at the colorful covers of some of the newest children’s book titles. Here’s a look at some books that will make you want to head straight outside.

“Garden,” by Robert Maas

Non-fiction for children has come such a long way in recent years. Beautifully illustrated, handsomely designed and succinctly written books abound. This is a gardening book meant to tantalize younger children. With clear text and brilliant photographs, Maas describes many types of gardens, and explains the importance of compost, earthworms and weeding, the right times to plant, and when to thin and harvest. (Henry Holt, ages 4 and up, 32 pgs., $15.95)

“Scarecrow,” by Cynthia Rylant

The first book represented the practical side of gardening. Here’s the poetry. Rylant’s scarecrow has a life of his own. He doesn’t care that his hat is borrowed; his clothes are borrowed; his eyes are buttons from someone’s drawer. He stands amid lush fields (richly painted by Lauren Stringer) with crows perched happily on both arms. “And though the scarecrow knows that he can as quickly be turned back into straw and buttons as he was turned into a man, he doesn’t care.

“He has been with the owls in evening and the rabbits at dawn. He has watched a spider work for hours making a web like lace. He has seen the sun tremble and the moon lie still.”

Rylant has exhibited an amazing range of writing talent, including books for toddlers, easy readers, poetry and novels, including “Missing May,” which received the Newbery Medal in 1993. She lives in Oregon. (Harcourt Brace, all ages, 32 pgs., $16)

“Down to Earth” by Michael Rosen and 41 children’s book authors and illustrators

This volume combines the practical and the lyrical. Rosen is becoming known for gathering new work by authors and illustrators into wonderful compilations. This is the third book that is to benefit Share Our Strength, an anti-hunger organization. All contributors donated their work. In this delicious volume, Carole King shares her love for home-grown tomatoes. Poet and Caldecott-winning children’s author Donald Hall tells about his late wife’s breathtaking flower gardens.

Seattle author Keith Baker describes and paints his family’s pear tree.

There’s much more. For as many styles of art here, the book holds together as a unit quite nicely. At the end there are recipes and instructions for activities, including growing a pear in a bottle, making a pole-bean teepee and an indoor moss landscape. ( Harcourt Brace, ages 5 and up, 64 pgs., $18)

“In the Park,” by Huy Voun Lee - Spring means an outing to the park for Xiao Ming and his mother. And as in other books about the pair (“At the Beach” and “In the Snow”) an outing means a chance for Xiao Ming’s mother to teach him some new Chinese characters. In the process, the reader can learn the characters too. It’s easy the way Xiao Ming and his mother explain it. The character for “earth” looks like a plant growing. The character for “chirping” is the character for “bird,” combined with that for “mouth.” The illustrations are bright cut-paper collages. (Henry Holt, ages 4 and up, 32 pgs., $15.95)

“My Backyard Garden,” by Carol Lerner - This is an excellent gardening guide for older children, or even for the inexperienced adult gardener. Lerner focuses on vegetable gardens. She explains how to choose a site, draw a plan, which seeds can go in early, and which should wait until later.

Her lovely and accurate watercolor and pencil illustrations clearly show the differences between common weeds and tiny seedlings. Pull the weeds while they’re small, is her advice. In addition to the practical gardening advice, the book is full of information about insects, both good and bad for gardens, and about the anatomy of plants and seeds. She also offers a month-by-month guide on what to do in the garden and region-specific advice. (Morrow, all ages, 48 pgs., $16)

“I Took a Walk,” by Henry Cole - Children love books with illustrations where they have to spot things.

This one gives that opportunity, and also demonstrates the many wonders to be found on a walk in the country. On fold-out pages, Cole’s realistic acrylic paintings include a skipper beetle, milkweed, a box turtle, a wood duck family, a spice bush butterfly, a marsh wren’s nest and much more. A key at the back provides answers. Look also for “Jack’s Garden,” by Cole. (Greenwillow, ages 4 and up, 28 pgs., $15)