• Age: 4 to 8
• Grade: p to 3

A delightful celebration of family, plants, and the boundlessness of love told in lively, poetic letters from aunt to niece with bright, irresistible illustrations!

Every month, an aunt mails a letter and a houseplant to her niece and . . . LOVE GROWS!

I'm sending this pothos, so while we're apart, you'll look at its leaves and know you're in my heart.

In the vein of We Are the Gardeners and Dear Girl, this beautiful story is the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day, birthdays, graduation, and more! Young readers and gardeners will also love the sidebars on each spread with fun and informative facts about the plants.

Ruth Spiro is the author of over 30 children’s books, including the best-selling Baby Loves Science series, How to Explain Coding to a Grown-Up, and Made by Maxine. Her books have been praised by The Los Angeles Times, NPR, TODAY, Popular Science, and the National Science Teaching Association. Ruth speaks regularly at schools and early childhood conferences across the country. She lives in suburban Chicago, Illinois, with her husband, two daughters, and many, many plants! www.RuthSpiro.com.

Ruth Spiro's profile page

Lucy Ruth Cummins is an author, an illustrator, and art director of children’s books. She has been happily paired with Jean Reidy for Truman, which was named a New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2019, and Sylvie. She also is the author-illustrator of A Hungry Lion, or A Dwindling Assortment of Animals; Stumpkin; and Vampenguin. When she was little, she had a pet spider in the shed where her dad kept the lawnmower. Every day little Lucy caught flies and placed them in her spider’s web at mealtimes. Lucy was born in Montreal, raised in upstate New York, and lives with her little family in Brooklyn, New York.

Lucy Ruth Cummins' profile page

The combination of accurately depicted plants with occasional silly rhymes and loving endearments make for a delightful balance of education and fun. This book brims with both warmth and information. A sweet introduction to houseplants. — Kirkus Reviews

A picture book about the love between a niece and her aunt, told through a year’s worth of letters and gifts. The letters are told in rhyme and include feelings of familial love and plant care tips. — School Library Journal

Foliage proves the food of love for a child recipient in this epistolary primer on how to cultivate the spirit of Valentine’s Day any time of year. Spiro and Cummins tenderly vine a green-thumb vibe through every scene. — Publishers Weekly

Spiro's epistolary rhyming text makes for a delightful reading experience, and each delivery features a tag serving as identification and descriptor of the gifted plant. Splashy illustrations in gouache, colored pencil, and crayon have an appealing scribbly quality that feels casual and inviting. Sure to make a budding botanist out of any young reader. — Booklist

This book should not be missed by young green thumbs or by aunts and uncles with special nieces or nephews, although they may want to plan for a trip to the nursery. — San Francisco Book Review