A Seed is Sleepy (review)

Following the format of their previous title An Egg Is Quiet, Aston and Long turn their attention to the structure, function, and diversity of seeds. Readers can certainly cull a fair amount of information from the text on such pertinent matters as varying lengths of seed incubation and dormancy, wildly disparate sizes of seeds, and seeds' need for soil, warmth, and water. Haphazard organization makes the story difficult to follow, though, and Aston occasionally loses precision in distinguishing between the seed itself and the plant into which it develops. A number of niggling annoyances mar the effectiveness: the insufficient definition of "fruit"; the confusing explanation of the germination of the world's oldest known seed (can the date palm that grew from the seed now be called "extinct"?); the vividly hued double-page spread of seeds that shows the sixty-pound coco de mer palm seed only marginally larger than an adjacent grain of rice; the observation that a seed might "tumble through a bear's belly" accompanied by a depiction of bear and berries, sans poop. The spacious layout, lovely cursive and pseudo hand-lettered fonts, and elegantly drafted botanical watercolors will nonetheless make this an attractive addition to the 580s.