Oh Say Can You Seed? All About Flowering Plants is the seventh book in The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library series. It was published in March 2001 by Bonnie Worth and illustrated by Aristides Ruiz. The book follows The Cat in the Hat as he teaches Conrad and Sally about the function of plants and how to grow one.
Plot[]
The book begins with The Cat in the Hat and the siblings standing beside a giant tree, showing them a seed and explaining what a seed is. On the next page, he explains the various uses for plants, like clothing material and food. In the scene, Conrad is holding two pairs of pants while Sally is holding two books. The Cat in the Hat carries a large basket full of fruits and vegetables while Thing One and Thing Two pick cotton. On the next page, while surrounded by poisonous plants, The Cat in the Hat explains the danger of poisonous plants as the pair of siblings watch. He is holding a medicine bottle for a sick Thing Two, who is inferred to have ingested a poisonous plant, while Thing One feeds him the medicine.
On the next page, Sally and Conrad are holding baby plants swaddled in cloth. Thing One and Thing Two come running with charts dissecting the anatomy of a seed, which The Cat in the Hat explains in the next illustration. Conrad is then shown to be watering a plant. Sally and The Cat in the Hat watch while the cat describes how a root system works. The next illustration breaks down the parts of the fully grown bean plant Conrad was watering previously. The group save for the Things go underground to investigate root systems more, where they see a mole.
The next illustration depicts the group observing a plant while Thing One is on the back of a rhino and Thing Two gets poked by a thorn on a rose. The Cat in the Hat describes how water travels up the plant's stem. The cat then describes the many different types of leaf variations, which are shown on the next page. He then brings out a machine called the Shrink-Upper, so he can demonstrate how plants perform photosynthesis up close. The next page shows the cat and the siblings on the surface of a giant leaf with a comical depiction of photosynthesis, which The Cat in the Hat explains.
The next illustration shows Thing Two on top of an anatomical chart of a flower while Thing One has a large magnifying glass focused on a bee. Sally and Conrad appear on the next page in beekeeper hats surrounded by flowers and bees pollinating them. This is where The Cat in the Hat describes pollination. The group is depicted on the next page on top of a large pile of fruit. Thing One eats a papaya while Thing Two eats peanuts. While explaining the different types of seeds, Sally is shown with prickly seeds stuck in her clothing and Conrad sneezes at a dandelion. Inside a garden with a lot of flowers, The Cat in the Hat says goodbye to the siblings, climbing up a giant beanstalk as his departure.