Customer Reviews:
 Long winded June 16, 2005
15 out of 24 found this review helpful
This book was a disappointment. I bought the board book version expecting something similar to "The very hungry caterpillar" which my one year old adores. This book is much longer, the writing is not suitable for reading to a one year old, much less clear and much harder to follow the story. I think this book would be more suitable for 4 years plus, though why they need it in board book form at that age is beyond me.
 The basics of botany in a beautiful picture book March 25, 2005
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
Eric Carle is great at imparting information to children in an appealing story format and in this book he covers the annual cycle of a flower from a seed. The tiny seed finds a place to grow while many others falling by the wayside, and then grows into a big beautiful flower. Finally we see, in the autumn, the demise of the flower and the release of a new batch of seeds which brings us back to the beginning again. As ever, Eric Carle's illustrations are colourful and refreshingly distinctive and the story is straightforwardly pleasing. My children enjoy following the progress of the tiny seed amongst its bigger siblings, spotting it on each page as well as the one loses its way in that particular paragraph because of snowy or arid ground for example. Also, I like it that it isn't the biggest seed that makes it but the little one against whom you'd think the odds would be stacked. There's a good subliminal message there that you don't have to be the biggest to do the best.
An eye-catching exploration of the life cycle of plants June 18, 2001
69 out of 71 found this review helpful
Eric Carle is well known for his fictional accounts of lives of mini-beasts but in The Tiny Seed he unravels the complex life history of plants. This is botany - not in a nutshell - but in a seed pod. He doesn't 'name' the seed or make it into a 'person'. Yet the reader immediately makes a connection with this living being. It is alive in a very real and exciting way. All that potential is held within the seed and as conditions are right, the life is released. It's not a new story but it is expressed in words which zing with anticipation and delight. All bound together with Carle's trademark illustrations, mixing colours and media to entice you further and further into the book. For young readers and adults sharing books with children, this book is a feast for all the senses. Enjoy!
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