My Nana's Garden

A little girl delightedly explores the wildness of a wonderful garden; she’s come to stay with Nana, and Nana teaches her all about the wild flowers that are food for the bees, the tangled undergrowth that shelters mice, hedgehogs and birds, and the trees that bear apples and also provide shelter for owls.

As the little girl grows up, she helps Nana plant vegetables and dig the ground; in the evenings, she sits out with Nana and her mother and watches the stars.

Yet Nana is growing older, and as the seasons pass, she gets more and more frail until, one winter, Nana is gone. After Nana passes away, it feels as though nothing will grow in her garden again, but the cycle of nature rolls slowly around, and one day, a snowdrop appears. As time passes, the girl grows into a woman and has her own child who marvels at Nana’s garden in just the same way she did. After all, a garden is a living thing; it blooms forever.

A stunning book about nature, the seasons and the cycle of life and death, My Nana’s Garden is a beautiful picture book and a perfect choice to use to talk to children about bereavement and the loss of a grandparent in particular. However, even without the bereavement element, it’s a gorgeous book about nature and will inspire lots of conversation about the seasons.