A Seed Grows

Ages 3 to 6, Grades K And Under

See the transformative life cycle of a sunflower play out from page to page in this bold read-aloud by Sibert honoree Antoinette Portis.

“A seed falls,

And settles into the ground,

And the Sun shines,

And the rain comes down,

And the seed grows…”

To understand how a seed becomes a sunflower, you have to peek beneath the soil and wait patiently as winding roots grow, a stalk inches out of the earth, and new seeds emerge among blooming petals. With evocative and lively illustrations, A Seed Grows offers a close-up view of each step of this process and the ways in which flowers and seeds depend on other creatures, with a striking fold-out spread of a full-grown sunflower and additional material at the back of the book explaining the science of plant life cycles.

Antoinette Portis is the author of A New Green Day, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year and NCTE Notable Book in Poetry, as well as the Sibert Honor winning Hey, Water!

About the Author

Antoinette Portis is the author of many inventive books for children, including Not a Box, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and a Geisel Honor Book and the Sibert Honor book Hey, Water!, which received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and School Library Journal, who said “This simple introduction to water is an ideal read-aloud for the youngest scientists”. Other titles include A New Green Day which was a Junior Library Guild selection and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, as well as the ALA Notable Books Wait and Now. A recipient of the Prestigious Sendak Fellowship, she lives in Southern California. Visit her at Antoinetteportis.com

Author Residence: Southern California