Review - Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt (Over and Under)
by Kate Messner
illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal
Date: 2015
Publisher: Chronicle Books (CA)
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 56
Format: e-book
Source: library

In this exuberant and lyrical follow-up to the award-winning Over and Under the Snow, discover the wonders that lie hidden between stalks, under the shade of leaves... and down in the dirt. Explore the hidden world and many lives of a garden through the course of a year! Up in the garden, the world is full of green—leaves and sprouts, growing vegetables, ripening fruit. But down in the dirt exists a busy world—earthworms dig, snakes hunt, skunks burrow—populated by all the animals that make a garden their home.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This, the second book in the Over and Under series by Kate Messner and Christopher Silas Neal, isn't as strong as the first. I found it too wordy, and yet somehow not as informative. Like Over and Under the Snow, this book also features endnotes, but they didn't seem as engaging. (Maybe I'm just not a fan of insects; that's the main focus of this book.)

The illustrations didn't impress me, either. I expected them to be similar to those in Over and Under the Snow, and I guess they were to a certain extent. But they also seemed a bit rougher, somehow, with fewer clean lines (especially on the human characters).

So this book was a bit of a disappointment. It would still make a nice companion to Over and Under the Snow (as well as, possibly, the third book, which I haven't had a chance to read yet)... but on its own, it's a little weak and a bit boring. Kids who are really into bugs might love it, though.

Premise: 3/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 2/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.5 out of 5