... Long before [my daughter] was born I discovered the wonderful books by the two Swedish women Lena Anderson and Christina Bjørk. They have made several books together, one of them is Linneas Almanac.

Linnea is a little girl we meet in several of their books, and in this one we follow her for a year, taking part in all her garden activities. There are 12 chapters in the book, one for each month. And in the first one, January, we meet her feeding the winter birds. We also get to know her best friend, an old man named Blomkvist. We already know both Linnea and Blomkvist quite well, visiting Monet's Garden together with them.(Another book by the same women)

In February Linnea shows us what is happening under the snow during the winter months, in March we can start planting, and then every months comes and goes, each with a new activity.

The paintings are simple, charming and filled with life. Linnea is a girl easy to love, and it is easy to follow her activities following the text and the illustrations. We use this book all year round, and discover old and new treasures every year...

Linnea is delightful and fun and exhuberant. She has energy and zest for life that is wonderfully contagious. Her almanac introduces the calendar year through the exploration of nature. Her happy, enchanting, written voice is a motivator for children like no other. This is a book for learning and loving life and nature --- again and again and again. I never tire of Linnea; her appeal is universal. The only thing that would be better is if she was a real person!

Linnea is a delightful young lady that finds gardening, nature and life in general interesting and waiting to be explored. She takes the reader young and old alike on a wonderful exploration of nature each month. Her story telling puts the reader in the mood to try the activities she discribes, while providing information and facts for use in the future. The illustrations put the reader into the story and show the finished product of the monthly activity.

I use Linnea's Almanac to introduce each month to my special education students, kindergarden to third grade and they love her. Linnea's adventues have peeked their interest in nature. They have put this interest to use by creating a Garden Learning Center just outside our classroom window, to share with the rest of the school.

Linnea's Window Garden and Monet's Garden in Giveny are also favorites and are used in the classroom. Working with plants and seed was fun after reading about the window garden and Monet has become a familiar artist to the students after reading about Linnea's visit to his garden.

Linnea's books make wonderful gifts for all ages young and old. I would suggest starting with Linnea's Almanac. It introduces the reader to Linnea in such a way that she is an instant friend. Plus, the illustrations are interesting and discriptive even for the non-reader. I have been Linnea's friend for almost five years and enjoy rereading about her again and again.

Linnea enjoyed Monet's garden so much, she decides to plant her own garden....inside... because she doesn't have land to garden outside! Linnea shows the reader her garden and then explains how the young reader can do the same thing. Linnea demonstrates everything the young gardener needs to know about growing a healthy, indoor garden. This book is a bequiling method of enticing children to develop a green thumb. Linnea is always fun and delightful!

This is a book about a girl named Linnea, the book is kind of like Linnea's garden journal because she is telling the reader what she did that day in her garden while explaining how you can plant those things too. It explains how to plant beans, avocado plants and lots more, It also tells you how to get rid of bugs, and it shows you different kinds of common bugs in gardens. This book really shows you that you don't need to have a big backyard to grow lots of plants. I really recomend this book

This is a book for children (with wonderful illustrations) that attempts to tell the story of the friendship between Alice Liddell and "Lewis Carroll". It is written is a somewhat episodic style. The episodes are chosen, for the most part, due to the bearing that each one has on illuminating characters and situations found in the "Alice" books. The author does not completely avoid the controversial, and this is somewhat of a pleasant surprise. Though originally written in Swedish, it reads very well in translation. I found the book to be both poignant and scholarly (i.e., well-researched), and with great adult appeal for a childrens' book. (Even if the text were less rewarding than it is, the book would be worth keeping for the illustrations alone)

Although The Other Alice is technically a children's book, any fan of Lewis Carroll will find it rewarding. The meticulous art work, showing Alice Liddell and her sisters and Charles Dodgeson [Carroll] and many Oxford settings is superb. The book is also includes many actual photgraphs of Alice, her family and Dodgeson's other child friends. Although this is a book for children, it does not shy away from the rather sad life and obsession which drove Dodgeson, nor does it give an artifically happy ending to the story. If you wonder where many of Dodgeson's plot developments came from [e.g. the Dodo, the wet 'caucus race' you'll find it all here. The author [who also wrote the delightful Linnea in Monet's Garden] and illustrator deserve kudos for this book [translated from the Sweedish, there is apparently a different translation avaiable in England under the title Alice's Oxford Adventure]. Well worth reading in a more adult approach is Staphanie Stoffel's Lewis Carroll in Wonderland [which includes some of the paintings done by Erickson for this book] both are better reads [and far more fun] than Gardner's Carroll biography.

This has to be the best cookbook for kids ever written. I remember loving this book as a young girl and checking it out of the library constantly. The reason that I liked it so much is because, not only does it give you recipies, but it also follows a storyline. I also loved this book because the recipies werent too complicated and actually WORKED, which was very important for me, the perfectionist 10 year old. This is an awesome book for any kid, boy or girl, and I guarantee that they will enjoy it as much as I did. I also recommend any of the other books written by Christina Bjork and Lena Anderson.

I have read several book recently that explain the impressionist art work of Claude Monet, and "Linnea in Monet's Garden" is certainly one of the most creative and interesting of the bunch. Originally published in Swedish as "Linnea i malarens tradgard," this exquisite little book tells of the adventure of young Linnea to Claude Monet's garden, where she gets to stand on the Japanese bridge overlooking the lily pond that Monet often painted. Linnea also gets to visit many of Monet's actual paintings in Paris, accompanied by her friend Mr. Bloom, a retired gardner who knows a lot about the life and art of Monet. The story of "Linnea in Monet's Garden" is told by Christina Bjork, with drawings by Lena Anderson. The book also includes both black & white photographs of Monet and his family, but color shots taken by "Linnea" on her trip or Monet's home and paintings.

The other books I have read this week about the art of Monet have focused more specifically on explaining his art in terms of subject, color, perpsective, tone, etc. "Linnea in Monet's Garden" covers these topics in a more offhanded way. This hardly matters because the strength of the book is in how in capture's the young girl's joy in actually going to the places she has read about and getting to sit in Monet's kitchen, walk on the Japanese bridge, and take photographs of the water lillies in his pond. There is also the fun of getting to see the actual paintings that she has only seen in books. This story is told as if it were a true adventure (they have to be allowed into the Water Lily Rooms at the museum because they are under repairs and Lineea bursts into tears when they discover the rooms are closed to the public). If you have ever had the pleasure of a finally seeing a great painting in person (for me it was Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" in Chicago) or visiting famous places you have read about for years (pick your own example), then this charming book will speak to you.

Linnea in Monet's Garden is one of those books which will be loved by all ages through the ages. The reader journeys along with young Linnea and her neighbor, Mr. Bloom, first to Paris and then Giverny to see the painter Monet's home and gardens. Providing the story of Monet't life with words and wonderful illustrations, it is as if the reader is standing on one of the bridges viewing the water lillies in person.

For those readers who have had the opportunity to see Giverny and the gardens in person it will be a special treat to read this book and reminisce. And for those who haven't been there and read this book, certainly it will provide a wonderful travel destination in the future. At the very least I imagine it will have most readers looking for an art book to view more of Monet's paintings or visiting a musuem which has his works.

Linnea in Monet's Garden is a book written by Christina Bjørk, and illustrated by Lene Anderson, both come from Sweden.

The book tells the story of Linnea, a small Swedish girl, and her old friend and neighbour, Mr. Bloom. Linnea and Mr. Bloom share a love for paintings and for flowers, and Claude Monet is a painter they both love. Together they decide to visit Paris, and Monet's garden in Giverny, and with the help of this book we can go with them on this journey.

The book is first of all a beautiful, everyday story about two friends visiting the house and garden of a beloved painter. But it is also a masterpiece in the way it is built up. The way the story, the information about the impressionist period in art, the pictures and paintings all melt together. I and my 6 years old daughter can never get tired of the book, and after reading it an uncountable number of times we both felt that we knew the garden in Giverny. It was a very special day for us then, last summer when we were able to visit Giverny, the house and the garden. We could walk around seeing the same sights as Linnea had seen, sit on the bench together with both Monet and Linnea, walk over the Japanese bridge, and take pictures of all the flowers Linnea had also photographed.

Though this book is first of all a book for children it is a treasure for all ages. A pure joy to read over and over again.

Britt Arnhild Lindland

I cchecked this out of the library to share some of the magic of Venice with my tweleve year old. She's been at me because I go on and on about La Serenissima, and having read the book, she now understands a bit of why I came to love this city so. I bought the book to keep with my Venice souvenirs as it gives so much information about the city and her sights.

This is the best child's book I have seen so far. I read it to my 7 year old son and I loved it as much as he did. I have been to Venice and I learned a lot of new things that I did not know. The story is interesting in a travelogue sort of way and the illustrations are wonderful and varied. The only similar book that comes close would be The Three Golden Keys about Prague. As a previous reviewer stated it would be great if there was a book about every city like this. Although a child's book it is quite substantial, beautifully produced, and well worth the money.

My 8 year old son read Vendela over and over before we went to Venice. His familiarity with the city made our trip - he recognized sites from the air on the way in based on the book! The author weaves facts and history into the narrative so we didn't realize until there how much we had learned about history, art, statues, bridges, cats, lions, and getting around -- my son even figured out where we were lost one time based on an illustration he remembered. We based much of our visit on what Vendela had done, since it felt familiar (and magical for dad & boy). Vendela is part of our scrapbook now; terrific book. I wish such a work were available for every city. Beautiful illustrations, too!