David Wood has taken his love of gardens, plants and animals to a new medium — books for children, perfect for holiday gifts.
Wood, a horticulturist at the Ford Motor Company headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., worked on the famous 10-acre roof garden during this 32-year career. He’s also installed gardens on land, planted trees in arboretums, written garden columns and had his own talk radio program.
A few years ago, Wood retired to Florida and Tennessee, where he teaches kindergartens, writes and volunteers. His children’s books are designed to be read to young children and read by elementary school kids. They make good classroom material, too.
A Year in the Life of The Kingwood Bunnies ($15.95 paperback, Peppertree Press) chronicles a family of rabbits at Kingwood Center, a 47-acre former estate that is open to the public in Mansfield, Ohio. Wood was inspired to write this book after finding a family of rabbits in a nest during a spring tour of the garden years ago with his granddaughter.
The 17 chapters contain “a lesson in a story about animals and botanicals, and children learn about plants without realizing it, in a sneaky clever way,” said Wood. At the end of most chapters, Wood’s cartoon character, Botany Boy, offers fun facts, horticultural tidbits and explanations of terminology or how plants got their names. For each book sold, Wood donates $1 to Kingwood Center.
The book is beautifully illustrated by Nell Floeter of Michigan, who offers an easy-to-follow lesson on how to draw a rabbit.
Wood has also written Cattleya and Catopsis: the Lost Kitten, set in the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Fla., about two cats who find a kitten, in the same format, with lessons tied to the chapters and Floeter’s illustrations. He wants to write a children’s book for each USDA hardiness zone. Ohio and Indiana share zones 5 and 6.
Very informative and well written on this subject. I will definately be back for more information. I use my own garden for creating a lot of remedies. The photographs make this blog a lot easier to read, a lot of people don’t bother. Keep up the good work.