The Secret Garden of George Washington Carver.

Barretta opens this sensitive biography on a moment of triumph as Carver overcomes the scorn of a roomful of white congressmen in 1921. Told he has only 10 minutes to make his case, he enthralls them, then talks for another hour. A portrait by Morrison shows Carver leaving the chamber, glad to have “share[d] what he knew.” This incident anchors an exploration of his young life. Forbidden an education, Carver teaches himself by patient experimentation with flowers that he cultivates in secret “so no one could find them or tease him.” Eventually, he becomes a local asset: “Here comes the Plant Doctor,” neighbors say. Barretta explains why peanuts were crucial (cotton had exhausted the soil) and celebrates Carver’s formidable success as peanuts become the South’s most popular crop. “Regard Nature. Revere Nature. Respect Nature” were his prescient commands. Through myriad lush garden scenes and impressive portraiture by Morrison, Carver emerges as a generous figure, a “living folk hero,” able to do whatever he set out to and “always ready to serve humanity.”

The Secret Garden of George Washington Carver.

George Washington Carver tended a secret garden of flowers before becoming known for his skill in agriculture. The book opens in 1921 as Carver addresses the U.S. Congress, astounding them with dozens of uses for the peanut. The narration then takes readers back to Carver’s childhood to discover how he reached that career highlight. As a child, he loved flowers, but he was warned not to waste time on plants that couldn’t be eaten or sold, so he kept his colorful garden hidden in the woods. Shut out of schools because he was black, he studied nature independently and learned through experimentation. Eventually, he started caring for neighbors’ sick plants, becoming known as “the Plant Doctor.” At 12, he left the farm on which he was raised and attained a formal education, after which he taught students at the Tuskegee Institute and farmers with a mobile classroom mounted on a wagon. This journey through Carver’s childhood and accomplishments ends with Carver’s simple but memorable words, “Regard Nature. Revere Nature. Respect Nature.” The substantial text holds readers on each spread long enough to appreciate not only the subject matter of the painted illustrations, but Morrison’s artistic techniques—strong strokes and careful dots, artful combinations of textures and shapes—which create lush forest scenes and portraitlike human faces and forms. The childhood story feels more cohesive than the final pages, which list his adult accomplishments but lack the narrative thread. Memorable art earns this biography a respectable place on the shelf. (timeline, bibliography, further reading) (Picture book/biography. 4-9)

On Monday, April 4th, I was honored to speak at the prestigious 92nd St.Y in New York about my picture book: “Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo Da Vinci.” If you’d like to see it, here’s the link:
Check It Out

So cool to see that Now & Ben is on sale at The Benjamin Franklin House in London! Thanks for the photo, Bill Ochester!

IT’S OFFICIAL! Another Publisher’s Weekly announcement. Finally getting to make my passion project! Thank you, Christy Ottaviano.

It’s official in Publisher’s Weekly! Illustrator Craig Orback and I are going to bring some much needed attention to a guy named Spielberg.

OUT TODAY!!! THE BASS PLAYS THE BASS AND OTHER HOMOGRAPHS! (Formerly: Zoola Palooza).
Now that the trilogy is complete, collect all three and never get your homonyms, homophones, or homographs wrong ever again.

TODAY!!! “THE BAT CAN BAT: A BOOK OF TRUE HOMONYMS” is available wherever books are sold! Hey MUPPET Peeps, you may just see your cameo in this book!

Thank you, School Library Journal for the wonderful review for: The Bat Can Bat: A Book of True Homonyms.”

Gr 2-4–Sports and animals are perennially popular, and Barretta uses them as the common denominator in this collection of illustrated homonyms. It begins with the easily understood “The bat can bat!” featuring a bat playing baseball, then progresses to more difficult examples. The font is simple, in black or white, depending on the background color of the full-bleed illustrations. The homonyms are printed in capital letters. The use of horizontal and vertical spreads is helpful in explaining the finer points of homonyms. One of the vertical illustrations features a two-tiered, high diving board—the top deck hosts an angry, red-faced rhino who is throwing a fit over the fit of his ridiculously tiny swimsuit. For comic relief, on the lower diving deck, a young girl casts a nervous glance upwards. A “Note to the Reader” includes useful definitions of homonyms, homophones, and homographs. VERDICT More concept book than storybook, this is a fundamental purchase for school libraries and public libraries with heavy educator usage.–Lisa Taylor, Florida State College, Jacksonville