Lola is one of our newest friends :).
After weeks of waiting and daily checking, new seedlings were finally planted in the flower circles in the park next to our building. We enjoyed beautiful pink tulips throughout March and April. Aaand we got to watch the gardeners live! Little gosling was very curious and observed them very attentively. Three men were planting pink geraniums and white morning glory. They had boxes and boxes full of them loaded onto a cute mini-truck (that immediately caught little gosling’s eye) the park services use to move around. They dug a small hole, placed the seedling and quickly covered it with earth and so on. We stayed there watching for 10-15 minutes and then rushed home to read “Lola plants a garden”, text by Anna McQuinn, illustrations by Rosalind Beardshow.
It’s a cute story about Lola (who can’t be so much older than little gosling), who loves “Mary Mary quite contrary” so much that she wants to have a garden just like Mary’s in her book. Her mom and dad are there to help her choose the flowers (out of books taken out from the library) buy the seeds, plant the garden, decorate it and then enjoy it over a picnic with her friends. It’s a short text, very much fit for young toddlers, with warm illustrations projecting a peaceful, happy childhood, surrounded by a loving family.. And books.
Little gosling squeals with delight at the sight of the Mary Mary doll that Lola makes herself (he loved the word “puppet”) and places among her flowers and caresses it every time we read the book. He notices Lola’s and her friends’ sandals, probably because he’s been fiercely refusing to put on sandals over the past two months of summer-like weather, determinedly affirming “bebe no like sandals”. Which is frustrating, given it’s the same sandals he wore just a few months back without any issues :))). What is even more frustrating, he’s now insisting on wearing his boots… hmmm…. Patience, mommy :)))). He’s intrigued by the garden shop, where Lola and her mom buy seeds, because he and his dad eat seeds from a jar in our cupboard (pumpkin, sunflower, sesame..). He patiently waits with Lola for the first shoots to come out of the ground (very smartly observing that Lola wears yellow boots, just like his!!!), content that Lola is not at all sad, but just impatient.
All in all, a sweet and engaging story for a 2-year old, which also presents the upside of racial and ethnic diversity.
