Posted:
11/20/2025 |
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(St. Louis) - A new children’s book published by Missouri Botanical Garden Press explores the Garden alongside a girl who is blind and her seeing-eye dog, using vivid language and imaginative illustrations to connect with young readers.
“Rosie & Pogo Visit the Missouri Botanical Garden” is the first published children’s book set at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and explores several areas including the Climatron, Japanese Garden and English Woodland Garden.
The book was written by Liz Byrde, a therapeutic horticulture coordinator at the Garden, and illustrated by her husband, Matt Byrde, a wildlife artist for the Missouri Department of Conservation. The duo was inspired to explore and illustrate ways the Garden can be experienced through smell, hearing and touch.
"In therapeutic horticulture, we focus a lot on multi-sensory aspects of interacting with nature at the Garden," Liz Byrde said. "I'm always thinking about different ways to approach the Garden with the different senses."
Through Liz’s descriptive storytelling and Matt’s creative depictions of the Garden and its stimuli, “Rosie & Pogo Visit the Missouri Botanical Garden” offers a unique opportunity for young readers to explore nature in a new way.
"It would be great for kids to think about experiencing nature in ways other than seeing it," said Matt Byrde. "And to think about how other people, who might not have all their typical abilities, experience the world around them."
“Rosie & Pogo Visit the Missouri Botanical Garden” is available for purchase at the Garden Gate Shop and at mbgpress.org.