Forest, What Would You Like? — Irene O'Garden

In this heartfelt poem, the forest announces its wish-list for every season -- including sun, mice, and a slug in summer; fruit, song, and spicy smells in the fall; snow, an icy river, and maple sugar in winter; and rain, moist soil, and flowers in spring. And all year long, it wishes for people planting trees and most of all children -- rambling, sniffing, and laughing.

Irene O'Garden wrote this ode to nature from the responses of four hundred children -- plus some of her own -- to the question, Forest, what would you like?