Created by the American Horticultural Society and the Junior Master Gardener program, the “Growing Good Kids – Excellence in Children’s Literature” award program honors outstanding children’s gardening and nature books. Each year, this award will recognize a select group of children’s books that are especially effective at promoting an understanding of, and appreciation for, gardening and the environment.

For the first year of the program, garden and ecology-themed books published before 2005 were considered for a one-time “Classics” category. The 40 books selected to receive this distinction were unveiled at the AHS’s 2005 National Children & Youth Garden Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia. The selection committee included the AHS National Children & Youth Garden Symposium Advisory Panel, Junior Master Gardener specialists and coordinators, teachers, youth leaders, and kids.

See the 2012 Growing Good Kids award winners