In this book, the plant stands before the child as a living being, with needs like his own. To live, the plant must be born, must be nourished, must breathe, must reproduce, and, after experiencing these things, must die.

George Francis Atkinson was a distinguished professor of Botany, yet when he wrote this book in the 1900s, his sole aim was to capture the life process of plants and tell it in a way that any child could understand.

Children are drawn into and amazed by the details of the plants’ lifecycles, and find the descriptions and progressions intuitive and easy to follow. The stories of the plants are told as biographies, so the children read them the way they would the story of a caterpillar that transforms into a butterfly.

If you are a parent or teacher who struggles to explain to your child the different stages of life, or you’d simply like to get your child interested in gardening, there’s no better way to do it. This book simplifies and teaches the lessons of birth, growth and death, through the life of a plant.