ALA Booklist (Tue May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

This level 2 beginning reader features a multiethnic group of children with varying skin tones and hair types learning about urban community gardening. Three brief chapters are titled "Helping," "Planting," and "Growing." Lily, newly moved to the area, misses the garden at her previous home. Her mother suggests they visit a local garden, where they see a neighbor. Mr. Sam gratefully accepts Lily's offer of help and encourages her to bring friends. Watercolor illustrations altered digitally add further details about the characters to the simple text. Some of the children are more enthusiastic than others, but eventually the group of four agree to join Lily. Step by step, the friends learn the process of planting and caring for fruits and vegetables, including the patience needed as they wait for their plants to develop. Luckily, their garden is a success, and the bounty of vegetables makes them excited for next year. The story is a cheerful introduction to gardening and eating a healthy diet. Instructions are included for readers to grow their own snap peas.

Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

Garden finds Lily and friends helping out at the public garden. In Gift, Mei doesn't know what to get her baby brother for his traditional one-hundred days celebration. The small conflicts and friendly city setting, shown in cheery watercolor and digital illustrations, support the easy-reader series' mission to "inspire young readers to imagine a diverse world...in which they can see themselves as the heroes of their own stories."

Kirkus Reviews

Diverse children work in a community garden.In Hooks' story, Lily, a brown-skinned girl with brown curls, says she misses her old suburban home's garden, and her mother, whose appearance is similar, suggests that she help in the urban community garden near their new home. The ensuing story employs a controlled text and is broken up into short chapters that provide structure and will support feelings of accomplishment in emergent readers. Mr. Sam, who oversees the garden and appears Asian, welcomes her and encourages her to invite friends to help, too. Readers of previous books will recognize familiar names and faces: Henry, Mei, Pablo, and Padma, who are cued in the text or in Ng-Benitez's appealing watercolor and digital illustrations as white, Asian, Latinx, and South Asian, respectively. Henry and Padma are initially reluctant, while Mei and Pablo are eager, but all agree to try. Mr. Sam shows them how to plant and care for seeds, and Padma is disappointed that it'll take "months" for plants to grow. This makes Lily worry that her friends aren't having fun, but, satisfyingly, they persist and are rewarded with literal fruits (and vegetables) of their labor. The visible enthusiasm of the tiny songbirds (underscored by their dialogue: little musical notes followed by exclamation marks) who watch the plants sprout adds sweet humor.A warmly inclusive book for growing new readers. (Early reader. 5-7)