Combining beautiful poetry with stunning hand-drawn floral illustrations, A Garden for Grace by Ellen Mainville is an exploration of family, love, and life through lessons inspired by the beauty of nature.

Sadly, after three years of detailed illustration and poetic crafting, educator 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.

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.

As a child who grew up with flowers from both grandmothers' gardens, I LOVE these poems and beautiful, fanciful art. I learned to garden alongside my mom, too, who told me stories of fairies in flowers and joy in the breeze. 

Reading Mainville's poems, especially when paired with her charming illustrations, takes the reader back in time to their own grandmother's garden, and the happiness that can be found there...and in these pages.

In the book, we learn that "Ellen was many things to many people: a granddaughter, daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, niece, cousin, and friend. Augmenting her long career as a teacher in public and private schools, she was counselor, preacher, writer, poet, artist, singer, gardener, seamstress, cook, baker, consummate hostess, and so much more. No litany of titles or roles can capture the wise, funny, compassionate, and engaging person that will be so sorely missed by all who love her. And yet, she is here to be found in her words and drawings."

It is hard to pick a favorite illustration or poem. I absolutely love so many of the flowers she showcased, but I think my heart belongs to her peonies, violets, and lily of the valley, flowers that are deeply meaningful to me.

"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."

Although not Ellen's only published work, this book was the closest to her heart and the gift she most wished to offer to the world. "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.'"

Whatever age you and your loved ones are, I hope you sit a spell and enjoy this delightful, re-readable book.

Highly recommended.

Learn more: https://threeoranges.net/grace/