Badger's Perfect Garden (Hardcover)

It’s springtime and Badger is ready to plant the perfect garden. He has spent months gathering and sorting seeds. It’s been a lot of work but it’s worth it. His friends Red Squirrel, Dormouse, and Weasel come to help. They weed. They rake. And finally they plant. Afterward, everyone celebrates, and Badger can already imagine the perfect rows of flowers and vegetables. But then a rainstorm comes and washes away the beautiful seeds. Badger’s perfect garden is ruined. Or is it?

Author Marsha Diane Arnold’s gentle story will encourage young readers to think beyond plans and expectations and imagine the wonderful possibilities that may occur when life and nature have other ideas.

Keystone to Reading Elementary Book Award List, Short-listed, 2020

Growing Good Kids Book Award, Winner, 2020

Florida Book Award, Commended, 2019

Publishers Weekly

In a story about patience and tempering expectations, Kaulitzki creates a woodland world of tree trunk homes and anthropomorphic animals. Red Squirrel and Dormouse help Badger plant a garden using the seeds he has stored in small jars. Badger envisions the plants growing into perfectly aligned rows, so when a storm washes out the garden, he despairs. His friends reassure him (“Seeds will float on the wind again, when the sunniest days come”), but, inconsolable, Badger spends the summer indoors. Red Squirrel, Dormouse, and Weasel excitedly knock on his door one day: the scattered seeds have grown into a beautiful, wild mélange of flowers. Arnold imparts a relatable message: thwarted plans can yield unexpected gifts.

Kirkus Reviews

There is no drought of picture books about animal friends making a garden. The hook in this one is the message that when plans go awry, there may still be a rainbow at the end. It is spring. Badger has dozens of jars of seeds that he saved from last summer to plant the “perfect garden.” His friends Red Squirrel, Weasel, and Dormouse help him by raking and clearing the ground, marking the rows with string, and making holes for the seeds. They celebrate their efforts with muffins and mulberry juice. Over the next three days damp weather accelerates from showers to a heavy downpour, and Badger is unable to rescue his precious seeds from washing away. Badger tries to distract himself from his sorrow with chores and projects (and naps). Then one sunny summer day his friends rush in to tell him he has the perfect garden after all; the seeds just found new places to grow. The attractive, full-page illustrations show flair and gentle humor (Badger’s yoga practice will have readers chuckling). The animals are lightly anthropomorphic; all wear some sort of human garment or accessory, and the texture of the animal fur is beautifully realized. While lacking the timelessness of Kadir Nelson’s If You Plant a Seed (2015) and the humor of Janet Stevens’ Tops and Bottoms (1995), the message of coping with unmet expectations and not giving up hope is worthwhile.