In My Garden

In this gentle invitation to a garden, a sense of motion transports readers to the outdoors. A flip through the half- and full-page illustrations produces a zoom-in effect, as if a camera's eye were moving through it, revealing the contents of the space. First, an open yellow door to the garden pathit leads to a birdbath. Birds perch on a wall and eat from a berry bush; frogs sit by, then leap to the pond. And on the other side of the wall, friends and a picnic await the narrator of the light, rhyming text, who says, ""My garden./ My path./ Two birds/ in my birdbath.'' Maris's garden is authentic and accessible, and his exquisitely realistic watercolors express a good part of nature's celebration of the new season, and of life. Like his Is Anyone Home?, this book is deceptively simple at first glance, but full and complex in execution. Ages 3-up. (April)