Spring giveaway: Gardening books (and more) for your little sprouts

A free children's game, exclusive access, and more!

The Peek Inside the Garden boxed set.

Lisa’s note: I asked my sister, Amy—who’s a brand partner for PaperPie—to share her recommendations for gardening books for kids and provide our readers with exclusive access to PaperPie products you can’t get any other way. We’re also featuring their products for our spring giveaway, which means we’ll draw an email address from our paid subscriber pool on June 3 and award that person with a free copy of the Bugs Matching Game featured below.

By Amy Barr

Sharing the wonders of nature and a love of gardening with children is easy with PaperPie. What is PaperPie, you ask? It is the rebranding of the longtime children’s books direct-sales company Usborne Books & More. With a new name that more accurately captures all of the products they sell through this Division of Educational Development Corporation—including Usborne Publishing, Ltd.; Kane Miller Books; SmartLab Toys; and Learning Wrap-Ups—PaperPie encourages families to gather for good around literacy and learning through brand partners. 

I am one of these brand partners through my small, home-based business. I became a one because I’m passionate about spreading literacy to as many families as I can, but also because I truly love these books. I was looking for books that could keep my two young girls engaged and spark in them a love of nature and learning. An Usborne title Peek Inside the Garden got us started on our journey. It’s now available in this boxed set with other wonderful titles of the same series. From there it was easy for us to continue building on what our girls had already learned from this first title to so many more available through PaperPie. Here are just a few current titles the children in your life will grow to love.

Usborne Baby’s Very First Finger Trail Play Book - Garden. A brightly colored, high-contrast, touchy-feely book for babies. Delightful to share, this book will engage even a tiny baby’s attention, and as babies grow, they will love to trace their fingers around the tactile finger trails. This series is designed to be used from birth. Babies will be mesmerized by the bright pictures and tactile trails in this vibrant board book.

Featured giveaway item: Usborne Bugs Matching Games. With 36 colorful game cards and four boards, this matching game is an ideal way for young children to have fun while developing recognition, memory, and communication skills. The game is complemented by a beautifully-illustrated book that includes instructions and fascinating facts about each bug.

My First Magic Painting Garden. Filled with simple yet stylish pictures designed to appeal to little children, featuring garden plants and wildlife from bumblebees to tulips to squirrels. Use the brush provided to sweep water over the designs and bring the colors to life; a laminated flap prevents water from seeping through to the pages beneath. For older children, try more detailed painting books like Fairy Garden, Bugs, and Butterflies! 

SmartLab Toys Tiny Garden. Hoe, hoe, hoe! It’s time to make a garden grow! With this 34-piece kit, budding botanists build a teeny greenhouse and use itty-bitty garden tools to plant seeds in tiny pots. They can label their sprouts with tiny garden markers and decorate the greenhouse with full-color, removable clings. When all the experimenting is over, kids can transplant their seedlings into the garden and start over. We give this itty-bitty botany lab two green thumbs up!

Need more ideas for things to do while enjoying and learning about nature? The Usborne Outdoor Book has lots and lots of activities to do outdoors—wherever you are or whatever the weather—by the sea or on a riverbank, in the woods, in your garden, when it’s sunny or raining, or even at night. Activities include making a shelter from branches and leaves, going on a nighttime nature walk, marking out trails to follow, making your own map, exploring a rock pool, and even cooking on a campfire.

Usborne’s most popular book series is Shine-a-Light. Shine a flashlight behind the pages or hold it to the light to reveal what is hidden in and around different places and things in these books. In this title, Secrets of the Vegetable Garden, a vegetable garden grows under the sun. If you look closely between the stalks, beneath the leaves, and under the soil, you will spot the animals and plants living there and discover a small world of great surprises! You may also like Secrets of The Apple Tree, Secrets of Winter, and Secrets of Our Earth.

As a young girl, I struggled with reading. It was hard for me and felt like more of a chore than an enjoyment. My own mother tried everything. She finally found a book that matched my love of gardening and was relatable to me as a young girl. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett opened a world of possibilities for me. I was hooked for life! Usborne has adapted this classic tale for young readers in their Read with Usborne series. When Mary Lennox arrives in her uncle’s gloomy house on the moors, she feels forlorn and lonely. But the house is filled with exciting secrets, and behind an old, ivy-covered wall is a garden, waiting to be discovered. Read with Usborne has been developed with the help of reading experts to support and motivate children in the early stages of reading. Clear, carefully leveled text and appealing illustrations help children progress and grow in confidence.

With so many titles, kids of all ages will enjoy learning about nature and grow a love of gardening with PaperPie! If you are interested in giving any of these items to the children in your life, you can find them and many many more at my e-commerce site.

I love giving recommendations! If you are not sure what to gift the child in your life, please contact me by email at amysbookpalette [at] gmail [dot] com. I can also help you get many of them for free with a qualifying online book party you can host for your friends and family. Ask me how!

Amy Barr is a homeschooling mom to two rambunctious girls, Emma and Jane. Amy lives in St. Charles, Missouri, where she and her family garden and explore nature with the Girl Scouts and on their own, taking advantage of the state’s natural bounty. As a brand partner for PaperPie, Amy might receive a small commission if you purchase using the links (at no extra cost to you), but Brunette Gardens will not receive anything and is offering this solely as a service to our readers. Plus it’s a chance to collaborate with Amy on our mutual passions!