Have you and your kids ever attempted to grow your own vegetables and failed miserably? Maybe the weather’s contrived against you? Or the slugs have slithered wild and destroyed your crops? If so, perhaps Findus Plants Meatballs by Sven Nordqvist will put a wry smile on your face. —Playing By The Book

It was a beautiful spring morning. The birds were singing, the grass was growing and small creatures were busy everywhere, filling the air with the gentle buzzing, rustling song of life returning after winter…

Farmer Pettson begins to sow his vegetables and because Findus does’t like vegetables he decides to plant one of his meatballs instead. However, keeping the vegetable garden safe from the farm animals proves a hard task for Findus and Pettson.

“This is adorable, as usual. Findus and Pettson would probably be quite annoying in real life, but in a book you just have to love them. You also need to look very closely at all the detail on every page. I’m not sure what the little green creatures are, but on one page there is a ticket booth and a turnstile for viewing the shenanigans in the vegetable patch … ” —Bookwitch