The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

Reclaiming wasted spaces is big on my mind these days, and that's the real heart of this incredibly illustrated new picture book.

One day Liam finds stairs leading up to the abandoned railroad tracks and just can't help himself - he has to explore. His imagination is captured by the weeds and plants growing wild there, and he decides to give them a boost. His project grows and grows (literally!) until the whole city is blooming.

Brown's illustration style has a sci-fi surrealistic 1960s look to me, and the pictures are so detailed that kids and adults will find things to look at on each re-read.