Laura Knowles 
It Starts With a Seed 

With lyrical text, enchanting illustrations, and a beautiful fold-out scene to complete the story, this award-winning picture book takes you on a journey through the seasons and years as you follow a seed’s transformation from a seedling to a sapling, then a young tree, until it becomes a large tree with its branches and roots filling the page.



As the tree grows, it is joined by well-loved woodland creatures—squirrels and rabbits, butterflies and owls—who make it their home. A
rhyming poem builds page on page, echoing the rings of a growing tree. The story culminates with a
foldout page showing a mature tree shedding seeds to continue the beautiful cycle of life. At the back, find the full poem and facts about the specific tree, a sycamore.



Beautiful and evocative,
It Starts With a Seed is a factual story that will touch children with its simple, enchanting message of life and growth.




A 2018 Outstanding Science Trade Book for Students: K-12 (National Science Teachers Association and the Children’s Book Council)

About the author

Jennie Webber is a London-based visual artist and printmaker. Her etchings and drawings celebrate the diversity and complexity of nature, reflecting her incurable curiosity for the world. Themes of conservation underpin all her work; the idea being that if people are amazed by the natural world, then they will be less likely to destroy it.