A four-book garden adventure for ages 5–10
That’s what five-year-old Bailey told her dad about his bedtime story.
He kept telling it anyway.
What began as bedtime stories for five children became Gracie’s Garden — an adventure series guided by creativity, intelligence, positive energy, and love.
A garden adventure shaped by creativity, intelligence, positive energy, and love.
Creativity
A creative little mouse with an extraordinary imagination — her ideas open paths the friends never saw coming.
Intelligence
Always learning, thinking, and planning — when the garden faces a puzzle, Zacky finds the way through.
Positive Energy
A happy roley poley whose unstoppable positive energy keeps the friends going when the adventure gets hard.
Love
A gentle blue butterfly whose love holds the friends together through every chapter of the journey.
And it all begins when Sammy the Snail — slow, slimy, and brand new to the garden — comes looking for a place to call home.
Jamie Mock was telling bedtime stories to his five children — Maddy, Zack, Roanin, Bailey, and Gracie — long before any of them became books. One late night, after an emergency procedure at his medical practice, only five-year-old Bailey was still awake. She refused the old stories and demanded a new one. Tired from a long day, Jamie's tale about a snail in the garden lasted less than a minute.
Bailey laughed: “That's the worst story ever!”
He kept telling it anyway. Night after night the children reacted, suggested ideas, and shaped the world — and their own personalities and strengths inspired the garden friends. The bedtime stories grew into a connected four-book adventure series guided by creativity, intelligence, positive energy, and love.
Each friend in the garden carries a gift that mirrors one of Jamie's children. Maddy the Mouse brings creativity. Zacky the Cricket brings intelligence. Roley Roanin brings positive energy. Bailey the Butterfly brings love.
Together, those four gifts guide every adventure in the series, just as they guide the real children who inspired it.
Jamie grew up the ninth of ten children in Wood Dale, Illinois, where fantasy books carried him to worlds where somebody who was nobody became someone special. He became a physician, moved to North Carolina to open his own practice, and found the purpose of his life in his five children.
Read aloud each evening to his own focus group of five, the words were sculpted by their response. Thus Gracie's Garden was born.
Ages 5–7
Short chapters, memorable garden friends, and a story world made for sharing one chapter at a time.
Ages 8–10
Large, easy-to-read text and a connected adventure designed for growing independent readers.
“Gracie's Garden is the best book ever!”
“My daughter has ADHD and this was the first book she could finish.”
“All the Gracie's Garden books are great. A must read for all in elementary school.”
Book One of the Gracie's Garden Series
A garden. Five friends. Four extraordinary strengths.
When Sammy the Snail enters Gracie's Garden searching for a place to call home, he discovers a group of friends whose creativity, intelligence, positive energy, and love help guide him through an extraordinary garden adventure.
One connected story across four books.
Book Two
When disaster strikes on the garden's newest attraction, the friends cross Tea Lake, Coconut Cave, and Grand Compost Canyon to bring Sammy the Snail's three little girls safely home.
Book Three
An army of pests threatens the garden — and the Shadow Creature is behind it. Old friends and new come together to defend the garden they love.
Book Four
A fall into a bottomless pit reveals an underground world lit by Colonel Lampy's glow gel — and when treason threatens it all, the four strengths are put to their greatest test.
Save 10% on the paperback set vs buying individually
$7.99 standard U.S. shipping · ships from North Carolina
Print these coloring pages featuring the garden friends — a free way to keep the story going after the chapter ends.
June 24-29, 2027 · New Orleans, LA
Join us at the American Library Association Annual Conference in New Orleans. Visit our booth to discover the magical world of Gracie's Garden and meet the creators behind this enchanting book series.
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
June 25-29, 2026 · Chicago, IL
We met readers, librarians, and families at the American Library Association Conference in Chicago and shared the Gracie's Garden series with signed copies of all four books.
McCormick Place Convention Center
(828) 557-5595
info@graciesgardenbookstore.com
Complete 4-book series available
