The Tiny Seed.

CARLE, Eric.

Item Number: 5348

New York: Thomas J. Crowell, 1970.

First edition of Carle’s classic work. Quarto, original cloth. Signed by Eric Carle on the title page. Small name on the front free endpaper, in the rare original dust jacket with a few small closed tears and a few chips to the spine and rear panel. Rare.

The Tiny Seed conveys the miracle of a seed. Flower pods burst and dispatch their seeds on the wind; the air-borne seeds are subject to myriad disasters; and the ones that make it through the perils of the seasons to become mature flowering plants are still susceptible to being picked, trod upon and otherwise damaged. But nature allows for survivors, and so the tiny seed grows into a giant flower, releasing its seeds and continuing the cycle. As he has demonstrated with The Very Hungry Caterpillar and other books, Carle has an extraordinary kinship with nature. Here we have not just the explanation of the life of a flower, but drama, lessons of life and a lovely spirituality.