This spare picturebook perfectly captures the that difficult waiting period between winter and spring, not just for gardeners, but for all of us. A serious young gardener plants seeds and then lies in wait as the weeks pass by. While anxiously waiting, he images some pretty whimsical and humorous situations in which something might have happened to his struggling seeds, but in the end, patience wins.

Caldecott winner Stead's quiet illustrations pair well wih the text. Her details in the plants and animals and the very posture of the child are amazing. You can feel the bleak, damp cold of those last days of winter in the browns. You can feel the frustration of fresh spring snow. You can feel the warmth of the ground and sky as spring arrives, her very placement of the clouds speaking to a change in weather. Stead is a master of small details and they make the text shine.