A Family Guide to Terrariums for Kids

Imagination-inspiring Projects to Grow a World in Glass - Build a mini ecosystem!

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Pub Date 15 Sep 2020 | Archive Date 6 Oct 2020

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Description

Design, plant, and grow a world of your very own—inside a terrarium! Including 15 unique, imagination-inspiring project plans, each accompanied by adorable, full-color photographs, kids and their grown-ups will discover how easy terrariums are to plant and grow. 

*As featured in The New York Times*

Kids love to create, imagine, and have fun. Nothing fulfills all three of those desires quite like designing and planting a terrarium. With the step-by-step project instructions found in A Family Guide to Terrariums for Kids, the results are beautiful, inspiring, and confidence-building. Making these little landscapes develops motor skills, spacial awareness, and provides a wealth of sensory input. The science behind the art is included with quick and simple lessons on ecosystem functions, the water cycle, and plant nutrition. But for kids, it's all about being active and building something cool! Plus, when the project is complete, there's a piece of living art to share with family and friends or display on a bedroom shelf.

With the terrarium plans found in A Family Guide to Terrariums for Kids, everyone in the family can tap their inner “science geek” to:

  • Use multi-colored sand and succulents to craft a desert terrarium
  • Plant, trim, and tend a terrarium bonsai tree
  • Build a peat bog filled with carnivorous plants
  • Make an aquatic terrarium, complete with a marimo moss ball “pet”
  • Design a prehistoric garden of air plants
  • Create a plant-filled habitat for a praying mantis
  • Grow a Japanese garden with living rocks


With information on selecting the best terrarium container, growing materials, decorative elements, tools, and plants, readers are primed for success that lasts long after the terrarium has been built. Terrariums combine imagination and creativity with a dash of hands-on science. And you get to play in the dirt! What could be better than that?

Design, plant, and grow a world of your very own—inside a terrarium! Including 15 unique, imagination-inspiring project plans, each accompanied by adorable, full-color photographs, kids and their...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780760367346
PRICE US$19.99 (USD)
PAGES 112

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (PDF)

Average rating from 30 members


Featured Reviews

A Family Guide to Terrariums for Kids is a fun and practical tutorial guide for planning and creating terraria with the whole family. Due out 15th Sept 2020 from Quarto on their Cool Springs Press imprint, it's 112 pages and will be available in paperback format.

The layout is appealing and unfussy - easy to understand and accessible. It's full of very colorful photos and step by step tutorial graphics showing kids making their own terraria (with some help).

The introduction covers some of the benefits of making a terrarium, selecting plants, and caring for them. The first chapters include a good introduction to selecting a container, preparing the terrarium and selecting planting substrate and other ingredients, plant selection and maintenance and aftercare.

The bulk of the book is taken up with 15 specific project tutorials (including succulent terrarium, marimo moss ball aquarium, carnivorous planting, and more). Each of the tutorials includes a materials list with items listed bullet style in a sidebar, a description, and step by step tutorials with photos. They are all very attractive and appealing and the photos are clear and easy to follow. Most of the plants have both the common and botanical (Latin) names listed for clarity.

The author has also included a short bio, resource list for sourcing plants and containers, and an index. This would make a superlative choice for a family with kids or home study unit, schoolroom or library activity (when/where allowed), makers groups and similar.

Five stars. This is also a great choice for a kid-friendly lockdown activity.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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What a great book. Very clear instructions. May be written for kids, but novices like me can learn a lot. I like how the author explains everything in simple, explicit steps. From type of terrarium to the implements needed, and plants to complete. Thank you.

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This book looks like a lot of fun for kids and also adults to make terrariums. There was plenty of information on what you need to build different types of terrariums and I thought it was neat that you could keep a pet praying mantis in your terrarium, I didn’t even know you could have a pet praying mantis! I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to garden or even to someone who is looking for a relaxing hobby.

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This is a fantastic book for families and teachers. It is educational in the fact it tells you about the products you will be using, but it is also fun as you learn how to make the cutest terrariums. The color images are great to show what you will be making and a teacher could use them to show what the class will be making. My daughter is 14 and super excited to try making some of these terrariums. I am also hoping to show this to the teacher in the autistic classroom which my client is enrolled. She might find these fun for the class.

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Author Patricia Buzo shares her passion in A Family Guide To Terrariums for kids. The book is well illustrated with easy to follow instructions and beautiful photos for creating your own Terrarium at any age.

I was given this opportunity to read this book for free on NetGalley. I love this book! I just preordered and purchased 2 books from AMAZON.
# Terrariumsforkids #Terrariumlove

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A very fun and interesting book for kids, but also grown ups. I loved looking through those ideas what I could do with plants and terrariums. Great inspiration and good explanation for this good guide.

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A Family Guide to Terrariums for Kids. I absolutely love this book you can build fairy gardens for kids. I might order copies for my grandchildren for Christmas and maybe buy some little things to actually make one for each of them. I loved the illustrations and is a very quick read.

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This is a fantastic little book. Perfect for kids, families and even a novice of Terrariums. I am very new to the world of Terrariums and I find this useful. It explains what types of different terrariums can be made, what different types of plants you should use and how to look after them. I also goes through the other things you will need to create a terrarium, the substrate, containers and ornaments etc.

It has step by step guides on how to create about 15 different terrarium projects. This is really helpful and would be fun for kids to follow and create their own masterpieces. Each tutorial has a clear list of everything you need to create that particular terrarium and it also has photos for each of the steps. This makes it really easy to follow.

This is a great book if you are wanting to start out in the world of terrariums and don't have a clue where to start, it is also a great activity to get your kids involved and keep them entertained for hours!

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Patricia Buzo has created such a fun and beautiful book in the form of "A Family Guide to Terrariums for Kids." Terrariums have been all the rage recently, and the author provides a simple way to create some at home by providing straightforward instructions with wonderful pictures to illustrate the steps.

This book covers some gorgeous ideas and features a range of plants, materials and containers. Some of our favorite containers were the geometric ones. The kids really loved the sections that featured small toys or figurines in the terrariums. However, this book is definitely something that would better suit a family that has slightly older kids or young ones that are able to be calm and follow directions extremely well. Set up and maintenance includes using water, soil and other materials that can be messy in addition to using instruments that require good fine motor skills. With that being said, we loved the images in this book and can't wait to try our hand at recreating the Bonsai tree terrarium!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

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This is a great book on the basics of terrarium making. It also includes several projects with easy to follow photos and instructions. Terrariums would be a great family or classroom project.

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Thanks to NetGalley and Cool Springs Press for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Great book! Well laid out with so much info and tons of pictures. 15 projects are covered with step by step instructions on how to set up. Lots of info on containers, soil, plants, mosses, watering and cute ways to decorate. I can’t wait to create some terrariums.

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I really liked how informative this book is. I love all the detailed information about how to make different terrariums. I think this is a must buy book for anyone who loves plants. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book.

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What a great book to have for those wanting to create their own terrarium. It has several types you can make on your own. It has detailed options for your choosing of resources. It is full of colorful photographs.

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It’s so wonderfully bizarre when a book release reads your mind. I’ve been working in terrariums for years and restarted recently in teaching my mom, 8-year old niece, and sister the basics of terrariums. I thought it was a great outdoor, socially distant activity and my niece and sister loved it (mom not a fan of the mouthful of dirt she ended up having). It’s gotten to an almost obsession on their end, but I prefer keeping it simple to not overwhelm myself and what more perfect way to keep it simple than this book? I was so excited to see the authors basic recommendations and perfect amount of information to keep the joy in this project. I did learn quite a bit between the best plants for the best containers, and am planning to make more based on the authors recommendations. I’m really excited to try different techniques and use this book as a resource. #AFamilyGuidetoTerrariumsforKids #NetGalley

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Really interesting craft o try at home with your kids or if you're a teacher like myself, to try in the classroom! Honestly, this would be a fun activity to try on your own or with friends as well! Terrariums have recently been growing in popularity, and it's really interesting to learn how they're made. It feels really special to have something homemade rather than purchasing it at the store. The book was concisely written with immaculate instructions, and the photos helped illustrate each point. I really enjoyed myself!

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This book was great. My son really enjoyed it and is keen to pick something out of here and start. Thanks for the creativity

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A fun book on terrariums, whether or not you have kids. I'm a novice, with no kids, but have always wanted to learn and have my own. This book is a great teaching tool, with such good detail on how to start and what to do. Offers many ideas, with information on the plants and ecosystems necessary. Detailed information on the plants, designs, the containers, caring for the plants, and anything else necessary to successfully build and care for a terrarium. Beautiful and inspiring photos, with themed projects including a Winter Scene Terrarium or Hanging Globe with Succulent. I highly recommend this guide to anyone who wants to learn all about terrariums, or increase their knowledge of what they might already know about them.

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A Family Guide to Terrariums For Kids

#AFamilyGuidetoTerrariumsforKids #NetGalley

What a fabulous book for the whole family, from the containers to use, to the kind of plants and planting bases; it is all there. My only quibble would be that this seemed to me like an all rounder for terrarium planting for the whole family. The photos were great and the recommendations seemed sensible, for example, using jars you have around the house for your planting. In all, a really nice book, even if all you are going to do is look at the pictures!


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Great book for learning all about terrariums for the young and the young at heart. I have plants all around my home but have never delved into the world of terrariums. For the most part, the materials seem pretty easy to gather. Also with many children being homeschooled, this book would be ideal as a long-term science experiment. As with living plants there are successes and failures, which help kids to understand that failure is just a part of life. Understanding this and learning from it is vital for a healthy attitude. Overall this book is a must have in homes and libraries alike.
I received an advanced reader copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

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I randomly decided that making a terrarium would be a fun project for the upcoming cool seasons. Okay, now to learn anything at all about a terrarium... Fortunately, this book covers everything you need to know (and, spoiler alert, there is way more to it than I thought!). From what kinds of plants to chose (so...many...options...) to containers options and how often to water, this book is a great go-to guide for the beginner. The creative set-up ideas feel like a bonus! I'm more excited than ever to start our terrarium project, but my first step will be to get this book in hardcopy!
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the digital version of this title.

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Fun and Sometimes Beautiful Range of Terrariums

What a fun book of terrarium projects, perfect for homeschooling during a current global crisis as well as for family projects any time! Full of informative and inspiring photographs, the book is divided into two sections: (1) general information about containers to choose, growing mediums, and plants to consider and (2) actual terrarium projects. Some of the finished terrariums are surprisingly beautiful (like the one with geodes, the orchidarium, or the ones with interesting-looking containers) while others are certainly whimsical ones that will interest children, like a dinosaur diorama including toy dinosaurs. There's even a praying mantis vivarium, which is a type of terrarium that not only has plants but also insects. Some could even easily springboard into a discussion about ecology, like the closed jungle ecosystem with tropical plants. The projects in these books are clearly meant to be done by the entire family. This book is not written for kids; it is written for the adults who should direct the projects. If you have any interest in making terrariums with your kids (or heck, even by yourself if you don’t have at-home children), this book will certainly inspire you to either create your own or do one of the step-by-step projects included in this book. Highly recommended.

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A Family Guide to Terrariums for Kids by Patricia Buzo was a fascinating and informative book. While it says “For Kids” in the title, this is perfect for any age. I wanted to give it a try because my husband has been wanting to build one, but we don’t know where to start.

The book was extremely informative and explained how to start building from the ground up. Buzo listed some of her favourite plants as well. Then the second half of the book was all crafts. I have to say the crafts were quite impressive. There was a huge variety of styles and ecosystems to choose from. I greatly appreciated the care instructions for each type as well. Now our big problem is figuring out which one we want to start with.

This book is perfect for all ages. Buzo’s passion shows throughout with all the detail and thought she put into this book. I highly recommend to anyone who would love to give terrariums a try.

I received an eARC from Quarto Publishing Group- Cool Springs Press through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.

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This was a fantastic guide for you and your family members! Great easy tips. We are going to do a family one at Christmas and give as gifts! Highly recommended this book! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

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