“Dad smiled. “Shall I tell you a secret? You, Ellie, are like an avocado seed: small but full of magic.”” – 3.75/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: avocado seeds, patience, growth and time.

Avocado seeds and slow growing! A young girl’s impatience turns to wonder as she and her avocado tree gradually change and grow in this story inspired by Israeli artist Taltal Levi’s childhood.

Ellie is sulking—she celebrated her birthday yesterday under the old avocado tree. But she’s not even a little bit taller today! Dad tells Ellie a secret. She is like the pit of an avocado, he explains, small and full of magic. Together they put an avocado seed in a glass of water by the window and watch as both Ellie and her avocado plant grow, take root, and eventually bring new life.

In Taltal Levi’s native country Israel, avocados are ubiquitous and plucked straight from the tree. In her third book, Taltal Levi uses warm, earthy colors to tell a personal yet universal story about the magic of growth.

Includes instructions for growing your own avocado tree!

Ohhh this was such a cute children’s book!

In this book, a father explains to his daughter that her growth is very slow, but it is there. So to help her understand, they sprout together an avocado seed to show her how slow growth can be. It’s a book that teaches children to be patient and show them how we grow slowly! 

I personally loved this story and the example her father used to make her understand. It’s a beautiful example that I might use with my kids in the future. I also loved how the author included instructions to sprout your own avocado. It looks like a good activity to do with your children and you can look at the sprout’s growth together. 

The only thing I would change about this story is related to the part where Ellie grew up and went away, and eventually had her own children. I believe this could be confusing to some children, so I personally would focus on the growth from a small child to a bigger kid, and then they would pass the message to a younger sibling or cousin. I just think the “grown up” part could be confusing, so keeping a child perspective from this book would be better in my humble opinion.

The illustrations are stunning and the color scheme focuses on green tones. If I have children one day and they learn English, I’m going to show them this book! 

Definitely recommend this one for you and your kids – as well as the fun book activity that you can do together.

A big thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.