March 31, 2026 By Maria
When spring brings warm weather, we always rush outside, throw open the windows, and shed our coats. My kids come home from school and dig through their drawers for summer weather t-shirts and shorts. The next day they will lament the return of cooler weather or rain. Spring weather remains a fickle surprise.
One thing spring is not fickle about, is flowers. Gardens will bloom. They may be late. They may be early. Whenever spring lets it happen, gardens bloom. One of my favorite things about spring is the surprise of finding new things growing as the snow melts. Little surprises greet us each day like the first spring crocus poking through the bare ground.
Around the time I started putting my blog together, my husband surprised me by coming home with a picture book after grocery shopping. The book was Mossy by Jan Brett. He knew I liked Brett’s work and had not read this book. The kids thought he bought it for them, but I knew better. I thought it was incredibly sweet of him.
Mossy is a story about a little turtle on whose shell a small garden grows. Mossy loves her little garden and the surprises it brings from new flowers to wild strawberries until one day she sets eyes on a handsome turtle named Scoot. Sadly, Mossy is scooped away by Dr. Carolina and her niece, Tory. Dr. Carolina gives Mossy a beautiful and comfortable new home in her museum, but Mossy misses her real home and Scoot. After a question from Tory makes her consider things differently, Dr. Carolina gets a wonderful idea for how to share Mossy and her lovely garden with the world while also returning Mossy to the wild. Mossy is so happy when she reunites with Scoot.
One thing that always makes me happy when I read Jan Brett’s books is looking for new surprises in the border art. Her books are full of fun detail hidden in border illustrations and Mossy is no exception. There is so much to take in visually when I read Brett’s books with my kids, that we either read very slowly or go through the book a second time immediately after finishing just to look at the pictures.
When Mossy’s story finishes, Tory is grown up and Mossy is a happy old turtle. In the border illustrations, we can see Tory bringing her own children down the banks of the grove to see Mossy and her family by the pond. I love seeing Mossy and Scoot’s children with their own shell gardens just starting.
Just like flowers we plant in the garden, good stories can be planted in our hearts when we read them. The stories grow like little flowers in our souls. They shape us little by little – the people we spend time with, the places we frequent, the stories we read and watch. I love seeing small blooms and buds of good stories blossom in my kids. It might be the way my son uses a story to help relate to and understand something difficult in life. Or it might be the way my daughter says she feels happy just like a character in a book who’s overcome a difficulty. In whatever way they manifest, these flowering surprises are lovely to experience.
More Bookshelves Please 