A beautiful story about letting your imagination run wild. Told with very few words this is a great book for emerging readers and open ended interpretation. The illustrations are gorgeous!

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The pictures were okay in this book, but I expected them to be more to make up for the lack of text.

I was surprised at The Invisible Garden, thinking it was just a picture book but when opening it realizing it was so much more. Yes it's a picture book but the length of a early reader with so so many gorgeous illustrations. Valerie Picard and Marianne Ferrer create the ethereal daydreams of a little girl, bored at her Grandmother's birthday and sent to the garden, away from her home in the city. In the garden she dreams and her dreams get increasingly more adventurous and curious. With an Alice in Wonderland feel, this lovely, nearly wordless early reader is sure to captivate young readers and encourage them to create their own dreams and stories.

This is less of a book with a story and more just a collection of illustrations that, when put together, could tell a story. There are probably less than 30 words in the whole book. While I'm not opposed to books that tell a story via the illustrations I feel you should do all or none. Create a story that can be read like a bedtime story, or have no words at all. The few words on the pages would frustrate many of the toddlers I know as they would want to know what it says but be unable to remember each time they look through the book.

Additionally the story is one with little excitement. A girl is sent to the garden and imagines herself as a small part of said garden. From dancing with bugs, falling into water and dirt, and eventually getting to fossils and running with dinosaurs. For me it lacked a real cohesiveness. And I know those who love creativity for the sake of creativity will disagree with me; but I still believe that a continuity and story that can be followed and worked out is important. It can be magic that is the answer, or just imagination; but I should still be able to understand how we got to dinosaurs. You know?

Overall the illustrations are lovely; but there is no real substance to the Invisible Garden. Therefore I would leave this one behind and move to a book that has more of a story and creates a meaningful connection to the character(s).

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion. These views are my own.

This is a beautifully illustrated picture book about imagination. There are hardly any words, which makes it a wonderful addition to very young readers' libraries, and fosters bonding time and fascinating discussions. I would definitely recommend this book to any toddler parents or preschool teachers. It would also be a fantastic book for emergent readers or slightly older siblings.

The images are lovely. They're what make the book. I'm not sure what happened, but my digital copy seemed out of order. The pages felt all over the place, so it was a little hard to follow. Even so, when in the right order, I have no doubt it's a gorgeous book. It's something I would've loved when I was a child.

Let’s start this review of The Invisible Garden. I solely chose this book because of its cover. I seen the larger than life leaves, and a tiny girl, and I thought “wow” this was going to be a cute fantasy other world type of story. I even hoped it was a slight retelling or book based on Alice in wonderland cause as we all know Alice shrinks and talks to the flowers. This story was really about a little girl who went with her parents to visit family who tells her to go play in the garden while the grown ups visited. Anyhow, the story however just never showed up. It lacked in few areas. I get that it’s a children’s book but I felt as if some of the story was cut out. There were sections of the story I felt didn’t explain the illustrations, i was just confused. the whimsical and fantasy factor that this book portrayed wasn’t there either. That’s just the storyline, the illustrations were lacking as well. I felt the illustrations weren’t clear, some overlapped other illustrations....I just wasn’t sure what she was going for BUT I didn’t think this book was all that bad I did love the subtle colors of the illustrations. I do think it’d make for a great bed time story.

The illustrations were magnificent! What an adventure! Thank you netgalley for the free arc in exchange for an honest review!

I felt like I went on quite the adventure alongside Arianne! The illustrations were simply delightful, detailed and vibrant, the artwork encourages readers to use their imagination to explore and discover as if they were there too.

The Invisible Garden introduces the reader to Arianne, on her way to the country to celebrate her grandmother's birthday. Being the only child present, she is soon encouraged to go explore the gardens outside where she lies down in boredom. She soon, however, gets wrapped up in observing the wonders of the natural world around her. In her imagination she soars off on a dandelion seed and gets a glimpse of grandeur and mystery of the universe.

The sparse text is mainly Arianne talking out loud to herself or to nature. I love that in her boredom, Arianne finds a spark of imagination that takes her outside her reality into a world of new discoveries. Perhaps a new maxim should be, "Boredom is the mother of imagination." Children will be fascinated by Arianne who seems to shrink and get larger as she imagines herself interacting with the natural world.

The illustration style is not one I would normally gravitate toward but as a children's book, I think the simplistic people and interesting patterns and quirky details on each page will interest young audiences. The art is also one that a child could try to replicate on their own which could lead to all sorts of creative extensions to the story.

Disclaimer: I received a digital copy of The Invisible Garden from NetGalley for the purpose of review. No other compensation was received.

A young girl named Arianne is at a party for her grandmother. Because she's the only child there, it's quite boring and she's told that maybe she should go hang outside in the garden for a while. Once she enters the garden and begins to explore, her imagination takes off as she makes discoveries and floats away into space.

This is practically a wordless picture book because there are only a few lines of text in it. If it weren't for the beautiful illustrations, we wouldn't have liked it because there really isn't much story at all. I like that children can let their imaginations run wild while viewing the illustrations, but the book doesn't have a whole lot of direction. We did still enjoy it and I'm looking forward to seeing more artwork by this author.

3***

I'd like to thank NetGalley for sharing this book with me for my honest opinions of the book.

I hadn't realized this was a picture book. The few words are all dialog, mostly from the child. It's...kind of cute, but pointless - a girl goes out into the garden, and either has weird adventures or falls asleep and dreams she has weird adventures. I do like the star dinosaurs... For the right child, this might be great. But it's not aimed at me.

I was drawn to this book by the both the title and the cool colors of the cover. It didn't disappoint! I loved the way the illustrations played with perspective and size to create a surreal feeling. While I'm not sure that the child I read with fully appreciated the way the book's text and illustrations mimicked the way small children perceive the big, wide world, it definitely made me feel nostalgic. The detailed pictures and sparse text left room for us to discuss the things we saw and the size of the bugs (dinosaurs, leaves, etc.) in relation to the child. This book was recommended for ages 3-5, and judging by the warm reception it got from my preschool-aged companion, the recommendation is spot on!

This book was visually beautiful. There is not a lot of words or even story (probably not the best for storytimes) but I still enjoyed it because of the stunning illustrations.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love, I love, I love these illustrations! And the simple and funny text! It was such a pleasant experience to read this book. It tells the story of Anne, a young girl who is invited to her grandmother's birthday -Exciting!- except that she is the only children and that she has no one to play with... Arianne is offered to enter the mysterious garden of her grandmother, and from then on, a lush and vibrant adventure in the micro and macro worlds begins.

I would easily buy this book as a gift to picture book lovers. It's a very dreamy, funny and relaxing experience to read this book, all at once!

This was such a perfect book for my daughter who is 5. She loves photos but is learning to read so it had just the right amount of text/photos in it. The illustrations are beautiful and imaginative and she will just stare at the drawings and think of what Arianne is doing in the garden on her own.
We downloaded it yesterday and have read it over and over again. I cannot wait for the actual book to be available here.

This was a beautiful book! The illustrations were gorgeous and had a calming feeling. The simple text coupled with the illustrations allowed the reader to explore their own thinking while being guided by the author and illustrators vision. Highly recommend this story!

I was drawn to the gorgeous cover for The Invisible Garden, and the description seemed very much like something I would enjoy. Unfortunately, though, the story just didn't end up working very well for me.

We follow Arianne who is sent out to play in the garden so that the adults at a party don't have to entertain her. The illustrations are mostly very lovely, even when they are quite simplistic.

But I think this book needs to either be a wordless picture book or not be a wordless picture book. There is just enough text to prevent you from fully imagining everything the way you want, and not enough text to fully act as a guide through Arianne's imagination. Sometimes the text even has a bit of an offputting vibe.

I think some children will still very much enjoy this book, especially those who excel at making their own stories for the illustrations regardless of what the text tells them the story "really" is.

2.5 stars rounded up for the lovely illustrations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orca Book Publishers for providing me with a DRC of this book that will be published in April 2019.

The illustrations are delightful in this illustration-heavy book. It has a bit of an Alice-in-Wonderland feel. I love how the main character looks so small beside the grown-ups who are too busy at their gathering. So, she goes outside and dreams up a wonderful, invisible garden.

The power of a child’s imagination to take you place you’ve never been and have adventures beyond any adult’s understanding is interestingly portrayed in this picture book. It’s rare that I complain about an author SHOWING and not telling, but here I’m tempted to. I enjoyed the concept of the story, and it was cute enough, but I’d love to have seen it have just a little more structure.

So if you don’t mind a little abstractness and love a simple adventure tale with lots of pictures to show and read to young ones, then I’d recommend this book to you.

FTC disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Orca Publishing House through NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.