A Flower is a Friend

Written by Frieda Wishinsky

Illustrated by Karen Patkau

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-280-6

36 pp.

Ages 3-6

May 2023

Many will be enjoying their gardens this summer whether through their labours or just sitting in the glory that is a collection of blooms and greenery. But Frieda Wishinsky makes us look a little more closely into her garden to see the flowers and their friends.

From A Flower is a Friend, written by Frieda Wishinsky, illus. by Karen Patkau

Page after page of glorious digital art by Karen Patkau brings us up close to the rose and zinnia, cornflower, magnolia, and irises to see the blooms in their bold colours and their dazzling forms. But it's the association with their flower friends that needs to be seen. With each blossom is an insect or a bird, mammal or reptile, or something else, that interacts with the flower.

From A Flower is a Friend, written by Frieda Wishinsky, illus. by Karen Patkau

Frieda Wishinsky and Karen Patkau reveal a variety of mutualistic relationships, with Frieda Wishinsky giving us the ideas and spirit and Karen Patkau giving us the colour and form. There is the periwinkle-hued morning glory with its visiting dragonfly, the mouse in a tulip, and a bat calling upon the crocuses. And in her dual text, one that stipulates what the flowers do and a subtext that has young readers ponder the relationships, Frieda Wishinsky invites children to look more closely and consider how pollination happens, how a flower can draw animals to it, and how both plant and animal can benefit each other.

Spread our perfume.

 

How could a spider 

help the Queen of the Night flower?

 

From A Flower is a Friend, written by Frieda Wishinsky, illus. by Karen Patkau

A Flower is a Friend will be a lovely book for teaching STEM with regards to the growth and changes in plants and the interrelationships of living things. Even though the story is appended with notes on each animal and its role related to the plants, it's the inquiry lessons about these interactions that will fuel discussions and learning.

Coupled with Karen Patkau's illustrations, A Flower is a Friend transforms from creative non-fiction to gorgeous coffee table book that any reader would love to peruse. Her art is created of shapes so curvaceous and colours so vibrant that the garden could be a surreal landscape of the imagination. But Karen Patkau is such a pro at digital illustration that her flowers could almost be photographs. (Her art of the roses almost fooled me into thinking it was a photo.)

 

We know friendships go both ways, and these flowers and their friends demonstrate that they do, helping each other to the benefit of both. There is science behind it, but A Flower is a Friend shows us that there is also great beauty with that science.

The Wolf-Birds

by Willow Dawson

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-054-4

40 pp.

Ages 5-8

2015

Sometimes I receive review copies of books that get office-bushwhacked on their way to reviews on CanLit for LittleCanadians.  Sometimes I get back to them, and sometimes I don’t.  And then sometimes because of award nominations I feel compelled to finally get that review out.  Such is the case with Willow Dawson’s The Wolf-Birds, recently nominated for the 2016 TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award and the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, the 2016 Information Book Award and the 2017 Blue Spruce Award.  Mea culpa for not reviewing The Wolf-Birds sooner.

The Wolf-Birds is a story of survival in the natural world and it’s not an easy one.  But when life is governed by the weather and food availability, how can it be anything but perilous?  Two hungry ravens endure the cold of winter, scavenging for food wherever possible.  When they hear four wolves in pursuit of a buffalo, they follow, expectant of some scraps.  Instead, one of the wolves is killed and the three remaining wolves continue their own search for food, alerted by the ravens to a starving and injured deer.  

From The Wolf-Birds by Willow Dawson

In the wild winter wood…

…one animal’s life helps many others live.  

From strongest to smallest,

everyone feasts in turn, filling

bellies and beaks. (pg. 24-27)

The interdependent relationship between the ravens and wolves is recognized by the common use of the term “wolf-birds” for ravens, acknowledging the unique connection between the two creatures.  As Willow Dawson’s story reveals, ravens are prepared to steal food killed by wolves as well as lead them by call and display to potential prey, while wolves pay attention to where ravens congregate and willingly clean up that which the birds do not eat.  It’s a unique interdependence and one that affords greater discussion in science classrooms, discussions aptly supported by the book’s references and information guide available at the Owlkids website here.

But, The Wolf-Birds is an illustrated children’s book and one whose artwork must be recognized as fundamental in the telling of its story.  The text is spare and that is because the illustrations, acrylic paint on board, propel the story through the cycles of food and life. Eerily reminiscent of the sleek animals of cave dwellings, Willow Dawson’s fauna are simple, outlined creatures, unadorned but easily identifiable, coloured in muted earth tones of feathers and fur, alongside cool snow and winter skies, with occasional brightness of rose or green.

From The Wolf-Birds by Willow Dawson

There is a story to tell here of life in the wild and a mutualistic relationship of which many readers are unaware.  The Wolf-Birds, beautifully depicted by Willow Dawson's artwork, is a story that must be told and appreciated for its lessons and its message about working together and survival, teachings that go far beyond the natural environment portrayed within.