I receive a lot of emails on any given day asking me if I’d like to review books that cover a wide array of genres, and usually, I can tell from the email copy if I’m interested. If you've been around my blog for a while, you know I love gardening and flowers and books- most especially, books about gardening and flowers! so of course I happily agreed to review and host a giveaway for a Garden for Grace, which is simply one of the sweetest books I’ve read in a long time.
A Garden for Grace Book Review and Giveaway:
My thanks to ABCarlson Publishing for the complimentary copy of this book and for hosting a giveaway. No other compensation given. It is my privilege to share books with you.
About A Garden for Grace by Ellen Mainville: ABCarlson Publishing, November 2021:
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| Courtesy: ABCarlson Publishing A Garden for Grace combines beautiful and heartwarming poetry, along with lovely hand-drawn, floral illustrations to tell the story of one woman's love of family, love and life through lessons inspired by the beauty of nature. According to the publisher: “A Garden for Grace showcases more than 50 full-color illustrations alongside children’s poems about flowers in the garden and the family that grows them. For children, parents, and grandparents alike, A Garden for Grace was inspired both by Ellen’s relationship with her grandmother Grace as well as her own childhood copy of A Child’s Garden of Verses by R. L. Stevenson. Featuring the blooms Ellen received from her grandmother, this book is a botanically accurate guide to 48 common garden flowers.” |
Excerpt from A Garden for Grace:
Look at this lovely drawing of a little Chipmunk under a Trillium bush and let the poetry welcome you into a chilly spring garden.
Trillium:
“Spring has come with a breath still cold
And snow white trilliums unfold
My coat unzipped, my hat is shed
I let the sunshine warm my head
Turning my face to feel the sun
I think of summer just begun
With trilliums instead of snow
And soon the hay and grass to mow”
Can’t you almost feel the cold air on your face while the sun warms you from above? I sure can. Ellen Mainville drew me into this book quickly. I read each page with love filling my heart, for my mom and Grandma, both gone from this earth, who just like in the authors case, gave me my love of flowers and gardening. I was never able to plant flowers from their gardens, but I did my best to replicate the look by planting some of their classic favorites in my flower beds. Lilacs, Daisies, Peonies and Petunia’s evoke special memories and gardens long gone.
A Sad ending to the making of A Garden for Grace:
Sadly, after three years of detailed illustration and poetic crafting, Ellen was 98 percent finished with her book when she died of COVID-19 in September 2021. The book has been published posthumously, thanks to the help of Ellen’s loved ones. Ann Carlson from ABCarlson Publishing goes on to say:
“Ellen Mainville touched so many lives with her art, poetry and gentle wisdom,” said Ann Carlson, publisher of ABCarlson Publishing. “Charming to read alone at any age, this book really sings when it is read to a child. The pictures are imaginative and playful, yielding up surprises like frolicking kittens and hidden mice, and the rhyming poetry is delightfully melodic and alliterative.”
“Ellen wrote and drew what she loved,” Carlson said. “Although she left us far too early, her book is her witness to the joy and strength she found in family and in nature: ‘though she can’t linger here too long, each flower sings her heart a song.’”
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| Courtesy: ABCarlson Publishing |
My Thoughts:
This book makes my heart sing with joy for flowers and gardens and family and the love of each. It is my sincere hope that I too am passing along an abiding love for flowers, gardening, life and of course family to my daughters, and that once they start cultivating their own flower gardens, I’ll be welcomed to join them there as they have always been welcomed in mine. And- once I leave this world, I hope I’ll visit them on a sunny day as they bend to pick a bloom, much like my mom and Grandma visit me. The Takeaway:If you love flowers, gardening, nature, reading lovely stories and feeling a bit wistful for people and places from your past, you will love this book! I invite you to learn more about it, including where you can purchase it by visiting the publisher's website here.
Win It: Thanks to today’s sponsor, ABCarlson Publishing, one lucky winner will receive a hard bound copy of A Garden for Grace by Ellen Mainville.
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Terms:
No purchase is necessary to enter using the Rafflecopter form below. My WAHM Plan is not responsible for prize fulfillment, sponsor is. Winners will be notified by email used on entry form and have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. This giveaway is not associated with nor endorsed by Facebook, Twitter, or any other social channel.
Good Luck!
Please share in comments: If you win this giveaway, will you keep the book or gift it?
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