- It's always story time at Bookworm Gardens in Sheboygan
as we turn the page to uncover a spellbinding world
of children's literature.
- Child: Over here!
- Angela: Our story begins with Elizabeth Wieland,
Executive Director of the nonprofit botanical garden.
- Elizabeth Wieland: Bookworm's mission
is to inspire the love of books and nature
in the young and young at heart.
When you think about our mission
and you think about young and young at heart,
I really believe that we have an incredible experience
and inspiration for people of all ages here on this site.
I love it when there are families here and children here.
I also love it when there are adults without children
and older individuals.
That's really important to us that we have both.
- Parent: There we go!
- Elizabeth: In many of our exhibits,
they play with scale,
so you get to feel like you are either incredibly small
or incredibly large. [child exclaiming]
- Can you tell us more about the spaces in the gardens?
- Gosh, there are so many spaces.
So in each site,
we've taken the book and then interpreted it in some way.
Some of 'em, you're meant to interact with.
You could stick your head through this donut here
in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
Some of it, you're just meant to observe and ponder
and think about.
- So I love the attention to detail.
Can we go check out some more? - I would love to!
Let's go explore.
- Angela: We're off to discover the hidden details
found within the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs garden.
- So I grabbed the book. - Oh, okay.
- To show you, because there's some really special elements
in the book that are in the space.
One of them, we looked at the bread house before,
and here in the book is the bread house.
[playful music] [child exclaiming]
So in front of us, these are berry timeless coral bells.
These are caramel coral bells.
- Angela: The food-inspired names?
- Elizabeth: The food-inspired names!
That one's a cinnamon fern.
This is the guacamole heuchera.
So we really love to add those details in the garden spaces.
- Thank you, that's interesting.
Each garden is a new book.
- Elizabeth: So the books exist in these pillars.
They're all laminated and protected in here
so that you can open the door, pull out the book,
and then experience the space right there at your fingertips.
- Angela: I love that.
With every book, a literary world comes to life.
- Elizabeth: So we're in the area of the gardens now
that's called the farm.
And there are quite a few books in this section.
One of our very most popular is this book,
Little Blue Truck.
And you can crawl into the truck and drive it
and go beep beep beep, just like the little blue truck.
And we have live chickens. - Angela: I was gonna say,
I see the live chickens! - Yep.
And then this is the Johnny Appleseed tree.
It's pretty cool because it's genetically connected.
We have the paperwork to show its lineage
back to an original Johnny Appleseed tree
that was planted here.
But there's lots of gardens here in the farm.
It's one of our most popular spaces.
- Thank you so much.
I appreciate your tour and your time today, Elizabeth.
- It's been so much fun having you.
Thanks so much, and please come back and visit us again.
- Definitely will.
[playful music]