by a Mum of a 7-year-old
We picked this up on a whim at our local bookshop, drawn in by the gorgeous cover, and it’s quickly become one of our most-reached-for bedtime books. My six-year-old is in a huge “why does everything do that?” phase, and Grow answers about a hundred questions she didn’t even know she had.
The book explores all the different ways things grow: up towards the sky, down into the soil, out across the sea floor. Flowers, fungi, moss, coral, seaweed, succulents, grasses, even sneaky trap plants that catch their own dinner. It’s an incredible spread of the plant kingdom, and my daughter is now completely obsessed with venus flytraps because of it.
What I love most as a parent is how the book is genuinely educational without ever feeling like a lesson. There’s no dry textbook voice here; it’s lyrical and warm, more like a gentle nature poem than a science book, but you still walk away having learned real things. My daughter now knows some plants live under the sea and some live for thousands of years, and she brings this up completely unprompted, which is always the sign a book has landed.
The illustrations are the real showstopper. They’re detailed enough to pore over, we’ve spent ages spotting insects tucked into the undergrowth, or tracing tree roots below ground, but never so busy that a six-year-old loses the thread. The colour palette is soft and earthy without being dull.
There’s also a gentle thread running underneath all the botany about growing and changing yourself: the idea that things unfurl and bloom in their own season. It’s never heavy-handed, but it’s given us an easy way to talk about her own growing up without making a big thing of it.
It’s the kind of picture book that rewards rereading, which is honestly the highest praise I can give. Perfect for nature-mad kids, but I think it would win over almost any child (and most adults too). A gorgeous addition to our shelf, and one I’ll happily be gifting to other families.
Grow by Jess McGeachin is available now from Allen & Unwin and major retailers for $24.99. Grab a copy for the little grower in your life!
