When a little girl accidentally swallows an apple seed, her big sister tells a big lie -- now an apple tree will grow in her stomach with its branches coming out of her ears! Rosie, the little one who swallowed the seed, becomes very upset about all the things she won't be able to do once an apple tree grows inside of her, so her sister Katie starts spinning more yarns about all the wonderful things that would happen instead. But eventually the truth will come out ...

This is a really cute story, which the authors explain in a note is based on their own experiences growing up as sisters. Without being overly moralistic, it is a great book about how a lie can snowball and cause many problems. The gentle watercolor pictures are a beautiful addition and perfectly illustrate the text.

I read this book to my kindergarteners as part of a unit on plant life. They all predicted that swallowing an apple seed would cause an apple tree to grow, so they were a bit surprised by the ending! I could tell this was a popular title because they were all very attentive when I read it aloud and later throughout the week, they kept picking it up when they had choice reading time. ( )