The Weedflower

Written by Elizabeth Davaze
Illustrated by Marianne Ferrer
Owlkids Books
978-1771475884
32 pp.
Ages 4-8
August 2024

In a busy schoolyard, with children jumping and climbing, sliding and clapping, one child sees a plant with a yellow flower growing in the crack between the cement and rubber turf. Only Sam sees it and watches it and sings to it and admires it.

From The Weedflower, written by Elizabeth Davaze, illustrated by Marianne Ferrer

But, as with most living things, the "alien bud" grows. It grows into a tall, bright yellow flower and then it catches the attention of the other children who join Sam to admire the flower. (Or is it a weed?) Not only do they admire it, but they also protect it and nurture it. They stop balls from hitting it and squirrels from nibbling at it. And the flower thrives. "Before long, the entire blossom had changed into one perfect, dreamy fluffball."

From The Weedflower, written by Elizabeth Davaze, illustrated by Marianne Ferrer

But when the adults at the school finally notice the "fluffball flower," they do not appreciate it the way that the children do.

    "They did not see the magic."

From The Weedflower, written by Elizabeth Davaze, illustrated by Marianne Ferrer

After much tugging by many adults, including the large principal, "the weedflower’s roots broke free, the stem came loose, and all the fluff floated away with all the students’ wishes in the breeze." It is only with time that Sam and the other children will see the weedflower has not gone because that fluff was actually filled with the promise of new life.

From The Weedflower, written by Elizabeth Davaze, illustrated by Marianne Ferrer

 Adults may see a plant that is growing where they don't want it whether it be a dandelion in a lawn, or volunteer trees that grow to close to a house's foundation. But children don't see that. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who had much to say about nature, is quoted as saying, "A weed is simply a plant whose virtues we haven't yet discovered” and many children have no problem finding the virtues in the dandelion. They bring home bouquets for their mothers, and blow the dandelion fluff and watch it travel like fairies on wind currents. They delight in their spread on lawns to become fields of green dotted with yellow brightness. (We used to braid the stem and flowers into crowns.) To nurture any plant and have it destroyed for its inconvenience to another would be devastating. Kincardine author Elizabeth Davaze takes the perspective of children seeing the dandelion as a flower, a thing of beauty and wonder, and makes us realize the loss they feel when the weed, according to the adults, is eradicated. It's all about perspective, isn't it? Too bad the adults aren't enlightened enough to realize that the dandelion would not be stopped by pulling one out.

 

Montreal's Marianne Ferrer, whose illustrations I have long admired (e.g., Carmen and the House That Gaudí Built, Racines, and Le Jardin Invisible), knows where to put the emphasis on her illustrations. Green and gold, the dandelion's only colours, along with the brown of the dirt, are the basis of all Marianne Ferrer's artwork in The Weedflower, regardless of whether she's drawing the dandelion or the children. The attention is on the plant, just as the children want it to be. Moreover, her use of watercolour and gouache give The Weedflower its organic texture, prioritizing the natural world. 

 

I know some teachers will use The Weedflower as an introductory story to teach the life cycle of a plant–too many kids don't know that seeds come from flowers–but I think it's a wonderful exploration of perspective and seeing things through a child's eyes to appreciate all living things as extraordinary, even the seemingly lowly dandelion.

Me, Toma and the Concrete Garden

Written by Andrew Larsen

Illustrated by Anne Villeneuve

Kids Can Press

978-1-77138-917-4

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

May 2019

There will be many kids whose summer vacation will include hanging out with relatives, away from home. But if that away-from-home holiday is also based in the wide-openness of unstructured time without benefit of anchors such as immediate family and friends, it may seem insurmountable or boring. Still, sometimes it's necessary to take a chance on beginning something new for growth to happen.

From Me, Toma and the Concrete Garden by Andrew Larsen, illus. by Anne Villeneuve

Vincent has been sent to stay with his Aunt Mimi for the summer while his mother recuperates from an operation. A box of dirt balls from a secret admirer–"Are you sure this secret person even likes you?" I say. "They gave you a box of dirt!"–adds to the grayness of Vincent's new surroundings until he makes the acquaintance of Toma. As an icebreaker, Vincent brings down some of the dirt balls and suggests they throw them over the tall brick wall into the empty lot. An elderly man whom Toma calls Mr. Grumpypants  is watchful of their distraction.

From Me, Toma and the Concrete Garden by Andrew Larsen, illus. by Anne Villeneuve

What begins as a tiresome holiday becomes a summer with a new friend, playing ball, reading comics, visiting the ice cream truck and more when Mr. Grumpypants points out to the boys, balcony to balcony, that the empty lot is starting to green. In fact, Mr. Grumpypants whose name is Marco is a kindly gardener who helps the boys water the garden through the fence and teaches them about the flowers that had been sheltered in the dirt balls.

But when Vincent's mother feels well enough to have him home, he's saddened to leave everyone and the garden behind. Thankfully there's much to occupy a child before their next summer holiday and it will be a wonderful surprise when Vincent and Toma are reunited again and extend their gardening into something even more special.

From Me, Toma and the Concrete Garden by Andrew Larsen, illus. by Anne Villeneuve

Like his earlier picture book, See You Next Year (Owlkids, 2015), Andrew Larsen gets into the head of children on summer holidays. In Me, Toma and the Concrete Garden, Andrew Larsen emphasizes the turnaround from the gloomy unknown of new place to a brightness that comes from belonging. That goes for both Vincent and the apparently worthless dirt balls. It is the unknown that makes for the dullness. But, with time and a little nurturing, the new friendship and the piles of dirt blossom into something invaluable.

Though I know that Anne Villeneuve, author-illustrator of Loula is Leaving for Africa (Kids Can Press, 2013) and other books, typically uses ink and watercolour, it seems highly appropriate to use those two media in a picture book in which colourful blooms sprout from soil balls. By emphasizing the black ink in her opening illustrations with only celadon and rose to relieve the gloom, Anne Villeneuve hints at the coming of verdant green and colourful florals. Moreover, with her wonderful assortment of people and animals, from a toddler with his mother to other children, middle-aged persons and the elderly Marco, Anne Villeneuve brings life to a community in which children and flowers can grow.

Many may dismiss unstructured summers in urban settings as flat and uninspired for children but Me, Toma and the Concrete Garden makes it clear that sometimes the incredible can sprout from very little.

Timo's Garden

by Victoria Allenby

Illustrated by Dean Griffiths

Pajama Press

978-1-927485-84-2

48 pp.

Ages 5-8

September 2015

Encouraged to sign up for Toadstool Corners’ Great, Green Garden Tour, bunny rabbit Timo begins tirelessly planning and garden-tending to make his flower garden great.  With rhythmic pairings of activity (e.g., “He trimmed and he tidied. He hurried and he scurried.  He raked and he staked. He worked and he worried.”; pg. 19) Timo works with boundless determination and relentless perfectionsim, leaving him with little time for his friends.  Even though tempted by Hedgewick’s spinach cakes, a visit to the lake, and tennis with Suki, it is only when the rains come that Timo realizes he should have been tending to his friends instead of his garden.

With deft pen and colour, author Victoria Allenby and illustrator Dean Griffiths pay homage to the characters–rabbit, hedgehog, mouse, frog, and badger–and gardens and stories of Beatrix Potter while providing a light, cautionary tale of finding the balance in life.  Unlike Victoria Allenby’s fun picture book, Nat the Cat Can Sleep Like That (Pajama Press, 2013), that focused on true cat behaviour, Timo’s Garden will speak to any reader who gets too wrapped up in seemingly-important attentions.  Moreover, Dean Griffiths’ artwork which has graced over 25 children’s books, providing the realism in Lumpito and the Painter from Spain by Monica Kulling and the colourful monsters in Tweezle into Everything by Stephanie McLellan, both from Pajama Press, complements the message of taking the time to smell the roses.  His endearing creatures, vibrant flowers and brilliant garden designs in Timo’s Garden will transport all to an era when time was sweet and friends were riches not to be overlooked.

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(A version of this review was originally written for and published in Quill & Quire, as noted in the citation below.)

Kubiw, H. (2015, October). [Review of the book Timo's Garden, by Victoria Allenby, Dean Griffiths, illus.]. Quill & Quire, 81 (8): 24.

Sidewalk Flowers

Written by JonArno Lawson

Illustrated by Sydney Smith

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-431-2

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

For release March, 2015

On a walk from the grocery store with her distracted father, a young girl in a red-hooded jacket gathers an assortment of flowers–a dandelion, an aster, a vetch, heal-all–that poke their way through the sidewalk cracks.  Unlike her father whose focus is often on his cell phone, the little girl notices everything: a dead sparrow, a man sleeping on a bench, a dog on a lead.  Using the flowers she collects, the child finds a way to commemorate, cheer and share with those she knows and doesn't.

Sidewalk Flowers is a wordless picture book, which has the feel of a graphic novel with multiple frames and black-and-white illustrations and occasional splashes of colour.  This format works to emphasize the sombre landscape of normalcy so that the girl's flower gifts are beacons of life, like scattering seeds of joy. Author JonArnoLawson ensures that the young girl's efforts are initially depicted in high contrast to her surroundings but then they are augmented with her arrival home where her joyful scatterings are the norm, while illustrator Sydney Smith appropriately uses coarse and bold lines for the encompassing milieu, softening and colouring those elements that are significant to the young girl's journey and her light-heartedness.

 A story of a child's compassionate and playful activities in the overloaded and unavailable world in which most of us work and live, Sidewalk Flowers reminds us that, when we stop and smell the flowers along the way, we can improve the lives of others as well.