«Grandfather's Garden» by David Loye

Grandfather’s Garden has the endearing and enduring quality of a classic of a new kind. As with the Harry Potter books, its rollicking stream of quirky tales is for “both little and big folk”—that is, for “kids, teens, grownups, and for the close, warm delight of reading aloud by moms and dads to kids at bedtime.”
Eggplants big as elephants. Tap dancing stalks of celery. A pomegranate that made of itself a big bass drum and walked around with a cheery boom boom boom followed by a string of tootling trumpet vines. And best of all, Grandfather’s stories. The Clam that made a pearl. The Baby Carrot who wanted to be a speed boat racer. The prehistoric dialogue of Dodo, Auk, and Duckbilled Platypus. And Georgio’s Magic Bean, Babbage the Cabbage, Thudglinka, the Tumbling Tumbleweeds, Flippo the Dippo sky writing JOY to the world, and Phyllis the Talking Pillbox—all come to life and dance across the page. But the big news is the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-caring Mifwump.
Now slipping in and out of the internet (for search words try Mifwump, Grandfather’s Garden, or The Mifwump’s Tale), this mysterious new folk hero bursts out of storyland into our real world with a special message and mission for our time.
Out of over 90 years of loving kids, teens, grownups, and reading aloud by moms and dads, three grandfathers and an apprentice have worked together to give you this book of stories that assert the power of humor to lift our spirits and keep us going even during our personal or worldly worst of times.
Please spread the word, be of good cheer, peace to all, and best wishes from this book’s 93-year-old author, and 92-year-old illustrator, and the abiding wonder of Grandfather and Grandfather’s Garden.