Allie's Garden

by Sabra Chebby, Marla Osborn (Illustrations)

Eating your vegetables has never been so fun! When Allie goes out to pick vegetables in the garden, she finds all kinds of surprising critters hiding an eggplant crow in the cornfield, a potato rabbit sniffing the lettuce and more. But with so many curious creatures around, will Allie’s veggies make it home for supper?

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Food

14 pages, Board Book

Published April 4, 2017

About the author

Sabra Chebby lives in Rochester, New York with her cat Malachi. She’s always had a passion for classic poetry and has been rediscovering her talents by working with daughter, Marla Osborn. Together the mother and daughter duo are having fun brainstorming over Marla’s clever food creations.

Reviews

[Baby Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review was originally written for The Baby Bookworm. Visit us for new picture books reviews daily!

Hello, friends! Today, we read Allie’s Garden, illustrated by Marla Osborn and written by Sabra Chebby, an adorable little book about fresh veggies and garden critters.

Today, Allie’s mommy has asked her to go out into the garden to fetch some fresh veggies. Allie dons her gloves and boots and sets out, finding fresh veggies and wild animals at every turn. When she goes to pick corn, there’s a cawing crow. Near the lettuce, a bunny munching on greens. At the cucumbers, a garden snake! Allie is not frightened, though; she shoos the beasts away and gathers her veggies, bringing them to her mother. In return, she is surprised with a fresh garden salad made from the fruits (or rather, veggies) of her labor.

This little board book was incredibly cute, and a lot of fun to read. The simple rhyming text flows well and the story is enjoyable, but the star of the show is the art. The illustrations combine food photography on fresh white backgrounds with the illustrated Allie to create a world of bright natural colors and creatures made of peas, potatoes, carrots and lettuce. The animals are especially creative: a crow constructed from eggplant or a snake made of cucumber are both visually interesting and make the subject of vegetables fun and interesting for little readers. The length was perfect, and JJ really enjoyed it! This is a creative and clever way to get little ones interested in fresh veggies, and we loved it. Baby Bookworm approved!

Be sure to check out The Baby Bookworm for more reviews!

[Nadine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Allie's Garden is a delightful board book to encourage eating vegetables. The artwork caught my eye first as it comprises of hand drawn cartoon-like Allie, photos of the plants and the animals made from cut up vegetables (a bunny of cut potato pieces, a snake of cut cucumber and pepper for examples). The text is in verse with believable events occurring when you go to the garden to harvest vegetables. Basic counting to five can be reviewed to count the three tomatoes or four ears of corn to add some interaction on each page. I received a copy for review from Goodreads.

[Khari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Judging by the blurb, it would seem that the goal of this book is to get kids to eat their vegetables.

I'm not sure how it would accomplish this. It is a poem about a little girl who is given a chore to go pick vegetables and encounters various creatures in the garden and gets upset at them, in a cute stomping foot kind of way. I understand the sentiment, but a garden snake and a fox wouldn't be eating the vegetables anyway, she should go all out and include raccoons eating the corn, or dear eating the beans, or squash bugs destroying stuff. That would be far more accurate, and make more sense.

The other thing I didn't really understand is the art. All of the vegetables, and the dirt, are actual photos. Then the animals are made out of vegetables, the fox is made out of carrots, the rabbit appears to be made out of red potato skins, the snake out of cucumber, but the crow is made out of...clay? or maybe fondant? It doesn't match. I like things to match, it's my overly conscientious side coming out. It bothers me when there is one thing that is different, I keep thinking about it to an unhealthy degree. Why is the crow different? Is that the most important character? The least important character? What is the illustrator trying to say? Just because a crow is black doesn't seem like a good excuse to me. You can use eggplant peels, those can be quite black. Or there are black peppers that would work too, I know, I grew them this year. It's just weird! Why?!

Later edit: All is well in the world! Upon closer inspection, and a hint from another reviewer, it turns out the crow IS made of eggplant! I feel almost happy enough to give it another star.

Story: Narrative Poem
Art: Strange mix of line art, photos and food art
Price $7.99

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rowan has trouble eating vegetables. But he doesn't have any trouble enjoying this book. It all evens out, I guess.

[Lorellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful introduction to types of veggies.

[Malia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute and catchy story with great illustrations! A real treat for the eyes!

[Andrés · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like lots of things about this book: the rhymes work, the girl is sent on an independent task, a child can see that food comes from the garden, then see how the food is assembled on the plate with a real-life photo. The black & white sketches of Allie against real veggie photos works for me. I didn't realize the animals were made of food until I read reviews, but I guess they are, and that was fine for me, too. I feel a little bad that Allie shoos animals out of the garden where they live. They're part of the ecosystem, too. But it's true, I get annoyed when animals eat the garden I'm growing for my own family.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun rhyming verse and adorable illustrations made of vegetables make this board book perfect for any budding baby foodie. My only criticism is that it didn't seem long enough.
The story ended just as it was gaining momentum.

[Patricia Kaniasty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorable!!! I love they way the veggies represent the various animals. Very cute. It all rhymed nicely too.

[Aneesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mission: Teach the baby to say Ali the Farmer's name before she comes to visit. Accomplished.

[kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty cute

[Katherine Kerber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great innovative way to show engagement with fruits and vegetables.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really cute lap read for baby/toddler, too small for groups. Clever garden animals made out of vegetables.