When a little boy plants a carrot seed, everyone tells him it won't grow. But when you are very young, there are some things that you just know, and the little boy knows that one day a carrot will come up. So he waters his seed, and pulls the weeds, and he waits ...
First published in 1945, The Carrot Seed is a timeless tale of youthful hope. The story carries its message through simple sentences, one per page, in large and bolded brown print. The pictures are eloquent in their simplicity with only black outlines, white, and shades of yellow, with solid yellow backgrounds. The simply color scheme helps add emphasis to the final two pages, where the only variation in colors are seen.
Although the story appears simply at first, it includes many subtle lessons for its readers. First, the little boy is quite dedicated to his carrot seed and shows great responsibility by pulling weeds around his seed and watering it every day. He is also the portrait of patience while waiting...and waiting...and waiting (!) for his little seed to do something. Anything! Finally, the little boy also demonstrates positive thinking and believing in himself, despite others telling him it the carrot seed will not grow. It is never too early to begin instilling these lessons - especially about believing in yourself - to your little one.
I was excited to read this book to my niece, Emily, just as my mother had read it to me when I was a child. Emily and I first read this together when she was two years-old. She enjoyed my theatrical reading, and let out an excited gasp at the end of the book. Thanks to plenty of repetition in the story, Emily had it memorized the story by the time she was four and started reading it to her stuffed animals.
--Audra