Porcupine Seeds

Porcupine Seeds

Viji K. Chary

Hi Everyone: My Name Is Porcupine: Here is My Story:

All my life I have been told that I would never be able to create a beautiful garden with magnificent flowers. My friend Raccoon has the most picturesque garden filled with soft grass, juicy apricots and precious sunflowers. He works hard on his garden. I have tried and tried but all I get are brown plants. Instead of a green thumb I have been blessed with a brown one. But, my friend Raccoon told me that I could grow sunflowers too. The secret he says: Sh: all you need is soil, sun and water and of course seeds. But, please don’t give it away. I want to make sure that no one knows what I am going to try and do and if everyone learns the secret things might get too crowded and I really want to surprise my friends if I succeed. Besides having a brown thumb is not something that I really want to get around and if I do not succeed I really do not want anyone to know. Determination and hard work is what it will take to get this special project done. Putting that extra effort and care into this will hopefully

Work. When my friend Raccoon heard me say that I would to plant and grow Sunflowers he told me the secret ingredients needed and he even gave me the most important ones: THE SEEDS!

Step one is to get all of the ingredients or things I need together in order to begin. I found a pot in the shed, an old bag of soil, a watering can of course the Sun. Hoping to get this right I scooped up some of the soil and filled the pot. So far so good. Next, is the hardest part. I had to pour out the seeds and make sure that I had just enough. Five should be about right. I do not want the pot to be overcrowded. Okay: One, two, three, four and five seeds. I did it! But, then a breeze came along the seeds blew away. Now I have to start over again.” Porcupine would not give up so he poured out five more seeds and this time using one of his own quills he managed to poke five holes in the soil and drop the seeds in one at a time.

I hope you remember the ingredients because Porcupine is not home free yet. “ Next, I needed to make sure that I watered the seeds, the soil part is done and of course the precious sun. Just hope it does not rain. I put the pot on my sunny porch and now for the water.” Filling the can it overflowed and he had to pour some of the water out. Lifting the lightened can Porcupine watered his precious seeds. So, proud of himself as you can see from the illustrations in the book and the huge smile on his face, he now did everything he could. “ All I need to do is water them every day,” he said. And he did!

Everything did not go as planned as you will learn. Porcupine noticed that the sun was brighter and stronger on the other side of the garden. He decided to move the seeds. Before he could get to the other side of the garden he tripped. Poor Porcupine was really upset and did not know what to do. The pot broke. The seeds and the soil splattered all over the place and the end result he realized that the seeds were gone or at least he thought they were gone. Porcupine was really sad. He did not even enjoy his lemonade or reading his book.

When he stepped outside after his nap you won’t believe what happened and what he saw. “ This is Porcupine and I have asked Fran not to tell you what happened after the seeds and the pot fell apart. I asked her to not give away whether my brown thumb ever becomes a green one. The seeds were gone and I won’t tell you and she won’t tell you where they wound up or if my garden has sunflowers. When my friends come over to see my garden will they be surprised? Will my garden be filled with beautiful sunflowers and maybe some other plants? I do not mind hard work and I know that if something really matters and is important then you have to work hard and try your best to succeed. Author Viji K. Chary created me and I hope she will bring me back for more adventures with my friends Raccoon and Skunk. She created the story and her friend Bridget McKenna made it come to life with her great illustrations. She really made me so handsome and my friends looked good too. Her artwork is so colorful and the characters, like me, look so lifelike. The author loves to write children’s stories and adult books too. But, just like me Viji enjoys reading and she hopes that you will enjoy reading the story she wrote about me Porcupine Seeds and find out what happens”

This is great read aloud story for younger readers to hear in school. It is a great book to teach kids about friendship, determination and hard work to get the job done. Beautiful story and great pictures and a really great way to teach kids about planting and gardening.

Fran Lewis: Reviewer

This book gets: FIVE GOLDEN SUNFLOWERS FOR PORCUPINE