Sandy Baker writes, gardens, and crafts and pours her passion for those into children's gardening books. Her two 2015 books are Three Sisters Garden (based on the American Indian practice of gardening with corn, squash and beans) and Gai's Go-Away-Come-Back Garden. Gai learns about the comings and goings of perennials, snails, butterflies, hummingbirds, and fireflies in the garden.
However, now in 2017, Sandy published Gardens Around the Globe: A Coloring Book for Grownups, 26 hand drawn illustrations based on photos she's taken during travels to New Zealand and Guatemala, California to Massachusetts, Europe and Canada. Take a vicarious trip by coloring the gardens as imaginatively as possible.
All her gardening books for kids are educational, informational, and have a fun, kid-driven plot that takes readers age 5-10 into the garden with fun stories. Sandy includes glossary, crossword puzzles, fun facts, gardening tips, and recipes in her books.
In 2011 she published her first book, Mrs. Feeny and the Grubby Garden Gang, about a neighborhood "gang" of kids who destroyed Mrs. Feeny's front lawn by walking and riding bikes across it. The book is the kids' version of lawn removal and replacement. How did she get the kids to help her?
Her second kid gardening book, Zack's Zany Zucchiniland was released in April 2012. Guess what Zack did--grew a whole bunch of zucchini, watermelons, pumpkins and gourds at his house. Can you imagine what happened?
Her third, The Dead Butterflies Diary came out in 2013. It's a kid gardening detective story where Betsy tries to figure out why the butterflies in her garden are dead! You'll never believe what she discovered! This is a favorite of young readers because of Betsy's kid-like illustrations and her use of texting words in her "diary."
Another favorite is Howie's Hungabird Dilemma. Young, very smart Howie must figure out how to keep his grumpy neighbor Mrs. Hatcher from chasing the hummingbirds with a tennis racquet (taken from a real event). Can you figure out what he tells her?
A companion to all Sandy's books, Color My Garden~with Birds, Bees, Butterflies, and Bugs was published in September 2013. It's a habitat coloring book, again for kids 5-10 (although adults enjoy it too), and it's in both English and Spanish (Colorea Mi Jardin).
In a bold departure from her usual garden writing, Sandy co-authored with Tom Reed an international thriller, The Tehran Triangle, published March 15, 2012. Kick-butt CIA agent Elizabeth Mallory is confronted with an Iranian plot to build a low-tech nuclear bomb. The young American-born Iranian couple have been radicalized and convinced to do it in their workplace in an oil services company in El Paso TX. Drug gangs help by secreting uranium across our southern border in exchange for thousands of dollars. Especially timely now as the Iranians continue to enrich uranium in their country for alleged peaceful means.
A Master Gardener since 2000, Sandy Baker's articles are plentiful on the MG website. She lectures around the county on basic landscape design, lawn alternatives, drought tolerant gardening, habitat gardening, and gardening with natives. She lives in Sonoma County CA with her husband on their flower-packed property. Visit Sandy Baker's kid-friendly website at www.sandybakerwriter.com for related articles and kid fun. Baker has a degree in English from Penn State.
