The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle, written in 1991 is a picture book about nature aimed at 4 – 8 year olds. It is a simple, factual description of a flowering plant's life cycle through the seasons. The art work is created in collage technique, using hand-painted papers, which are cut and layers to form bright and colourful images. Many of the illustrations have an added dimension—die-cut pages. The plot relates to the circle of life which makes the story very logical. Carle attempts to make the story not only entertaining, but also to offer his readers the opportunity to learn something about the world around them.
There are no characters in the book, only seeds and plants and as a result the themes of the story are drawn from extensive knowledge of nature— an interest shared by most young children. It is therefore interesting for both boys and girls. However, the story also takes a negative approach when the seed: burns, drowns, freezes and gets eaten by a bird/mouse. The plant then dies when a child accidently stands on it.
The story also emphasises a covert message which is slow and steady wins the race and size does not matter. Some children could relate to this message. After sharing the book with a class, children could create their own giant flowers using the method Eric Carle does – a collage. Furthermore this book could be used to refer to when learning about the life cycle of plants in a science lesson.
Carle attempts to recognize children's feelings, inquisitiveness and creativity, as well as stimulate their intellectual growth; it is for these reasons (in addition to his unique artwork) that I would highly recommend the book.
There are no characters in the book, only seeds and plants and as a result the themes of the story are drawn from extensive knowledge of nature— an interest shared by most young children. It is therefore interesting for both boys and girls. However, the story also takes a negative approach when the seed: burns, drowns, freezes and gets eaten by a bird/mouse. The plant then dies when a child accidently stands on it.
The story also emphasises a covert message which is slow and steady wins the race and size does not matter. Some children could relate to this message. After sharing the book with a class, children could create their own giant flowers using the method Eric Carle does – a collage. Furthermore this book could be used to refer to when learning about the life cycle of plants in a science lesson.
Carle attempts to recognize children's feelings, inquisitiveness and creativity, as well as stimulate their intellectual growth; it is for these reasons (in addition to his unique artwork) that I would highly recommend the book.