Lettuce

Gr 3–6—These slim volumes are packed with information about growing specific kinds of food. Unlike ABDO's "Cool Garden to Table" series, which focuses on one kind of crop grown in container gardens, this series explores several varieties of each fruit or vegetable in several garden arrangements. Lanz gives step-by-step instructions for preparing soil, sprouting seeds, and harvesting and discusses how to handle plant problems and pests. The scope of each book is, at times, a little too ambitious, and some information is not clearly explained. For example, in Lettuce, readers are told they can make seedling pots out of newspaper, but there are no instructions for how to do so. Overall, though, these titles offer some useful information for young gardeners. The series is illustrated with copious color photos of happy children working in their well-tended gardens.