• Age: 4 to 8
• Grade: k to 2

Two young children observe milkweed growing in their community—from seed to new buds to flowers.

Wait like a seed,
Cozy and small.
Wait like a seed
Til the spring rains fall.

Wait Like a Seed beautifully explores the life cycle of milkweed and its vital relationship to monarch butterflies. Complete with accurate botanical drawings and comprehensive back-matter detailing the life cycles of plants and butterflies, this timeless story is perfect for both school curriculums and curious children who enjoy nature. Children will be inspired to help save the diminishing population of monarch butterflies in their own environment. This book combines the wonders of nature with poetic text and warm and welcoming art.

Award-winning author Erin Alladin invites young gardeners to celebrate the world around them in this rhyming nonfiction text.

Illustrator Tara Anderson portrays these lifecycles with a nostalgic style, effectively capturing the wonder of the aspiring gardeners.

Erin Alladin is an editor, a writer, and an ecology enthusiast who is always looking for ways to combine her passions. Born in Northern Ontario to a gardener and a forester, she spent most of her early life looking at and thinking about the natural world. As a young adult she spent nearly a decade immersed in Toronto’s children’s literature scene before retreating back up north, where she continues to edit while growing vegetables and writing about regenerative agriculture. Erin’s debut picture book, Outside You Notice, received a starred review from Kirkus and was the Northern Lights Book Award winner. Erin lives near Parry Sound with her wife, her garden, and not quite enough bookshelves.

Erin Alladin's profile page

A folk artist and award-winning illustrator who trained at the Ontario College of Art and Design, Tara Anderson is known for her lively and humorous animal illustrations. Her most recent work includes spot illustrations of a quirky little hamster in Sapphire the Great and the Meaning of Life, and beautiful coloured-pencil illustrations of a boisterous family of rhinos in Rhino Rumpus. Her debut That Stripy Cat was followed with Nat the Cat Can Sleep Like That, which won the 2014 Preschool Reads Award and was nominated for the 2015 SYRCA Shining Willow Award. The antics of Nat and his kitten friend are inspired by the cats who roam her farmhouse in Tweed, Ontario, where she lives with her husband and daughter.

Tara Anderson's profile page

Praise for Wait Like a Seed

“Of the many titles available on milkweeds and monarchs, this is one of the most accessible for youngsters reading on their own....while older readers and adults will appreciate the extensive backmatter....Useful and enlightening—and certain to have youngsters observing the natural world with wonder.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Declarative second-person verse and friendly renderings combine for an effect that communicates guidance about growing up as much as about cultivating plants....Science-focused back matter includes life cycle information, a glossary, and further facts.”—Publishers Weekly