I found this book to be uninspiring and therefore I will not be recommending it to my fellow educators.

I have a lot of plants in my classroom and the children love taking care of them. This book was perfect to share with them and the illustrations meant they could recognise some familiar plants.

A very straight forward read with some interesting facts about plants and pets at the end.

Leif's Gift is a charming, if fairly straightforward, narrative about a young boy whose love for (and collection of) plants grows and grows until one day, he finds his room has been completely overtaken by his thriving collection. Even as someone without a green thumb it was clear from the beginning that this story would be going the "plant propagation and sharing with others" route, but that didn't put much of a damper on my appreciation of the book.

Detailed and lush plant illustrations, combined with the specific mention of many different types of plants and some of the ways one cares for them, adds richness and informational content to the basic story.

This would be a great read for families with children who are very interested in plant care or gardening; I could see it being a useful bridge from more general plant stories to nonfiction plant care guides and more informational texts.