Miss Maple's Seeds

Eliza Wheeler (www.wheelerstudio.com) grew up in northern Wisconsin in a family of teachers, musicians, and artists. Some of the strongest influences on her creativity have been the wild Wisconsin seasons, canoeing the Brule River, picking blueberries with her grandmother, and digging through the snow with her brothers. She received the SCBWI Los Angeles International Conference Portfolio Grand Prize for her artwork, and Miss Maple’s Seeds is her first picture book. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

“Confident artistry and an intuitive knowledge of what the world looks like to a very small person make a winning combination in Wheeler’s debut . . . Careful observation of seeds (including a labeled seed chart), leaves, and plants gives the artwork substance, and Japanese woodblock–style skies that fade to sunset hues provide a wistful emotional overlay. Wheeler has clearly had a good time inventing fairy-house fixtures for Miss Maple: flower lantern boats and hollow-log houses make one yearn to escape our big, unwieldy world and inhabit hers.”—Publishers Weekly“Completely enchanting . . . Miss Maple is the perfect embodiment of a caregiver . . . Each page is filled with broad vistas, warm breezes, woodland creatures, and other whimsical imagery that cannot help but welcome readers into Miss Maple’s world. With its positive message about the value of nurturing even the tiniest bit of the natural world, this book is simply wonderful.”—School Library Journal"The clean, fluid lines and lovely shading of the ink-and-watercolor artwork gives the book a beguiling look that will go a long way toward charming parents as well as children . . . For classroom units, this picture book could add a fanciful counterpoint to more down-to-earth books on seeds."—Booklist