Florette

Mae desperately misses her garden after moving to the city, with its tall, crowded buildings and narrow streets; her new urban environment offers no “winding paths and leafy hiding spots” or butterfly chases “in the wavy grass.”

Light-skinned with bobbed chestnut hair tucked behind her ears, Mae tries to cheer herself up, which will deeply impress young readers who couldn’t imagine being transplanted (and perhaps seem even more admirable to those who have!). She covers a cobblestone square with chalk drawings of caterpillars, leaves, dragonflies, dandelions, bees, and grass; she covers towering cardboard moving boxes with apple trees, lily of the valley, birds, daisies, and ladybugs. But the rain washes away her pictures, and her dad totes away the boxes. While the city has its own appeal, its elegant buildings stretching skyward and its charming storefronts cheery, Mae’s melancholy bleeds through, coloring everything. Wan watercolors offer some soft pinks, mellow reds, and mossy greens, but overcast slate blues and grays dominate. Verdant, dazzling endpapers at the book’s very beginning (dappled leaves covering the spread completely, dotted with little wildflowers and the faces of a few woodland creatures) make Mae’s changed circumstances painfully clear. When she stumbles upon Florette, a greenhouse plant shop crawling with vines, leaves, cactus needles, and blossoms, Mae finally sees she can bloom where she’s been planted.

Lessons in both gumption and the sacred nature of urban green spaces. (Picture book. 4-8)

PreS-Gr 1--Moving is difficult for most people, but leaving a beloved garden to inhabit an urban apartment is quite an upheaval for this young protagonist: subdued neutral hues comprise the palette at this point, a situation Mae tries to rectify by drawing a chalk garden on the adjoining plaza and on the boxes piled up in her room. Alas, rain and her father's unpacking ruin her creations. Even a family outing to park swings seems doomed when Mae observes stones instead of grass, but spying an "apple-tree bird," the inquisitive girl discovers a luscious, blossoming paradise--enclosed in glass. Although "Florette" is closed, a tiny sprout is growing from a crack in the building. Potting it, she takes it to her plaza; when the view pulls back, this too has become a verdant oasis, with vines hanging from balconies and a diverse group of children playing among the flowerpots. The narration is restrained and tightly constructed, allowing the watercolor compositions to contrast the pale city--punctuated with the smallest spots of pigment--with the many shades and shapes of greenery in the botanical garden; that page turn is spectacular. VERDICT A worthy addition to the canon of books depicting young gardeners transforming spaces and lives, such as Sarah Stewart's The Gardener and Peter Brown's The Curious Garden.--Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Mae is lonely after her family moves from the countryside into the city, and she misses growing things: "There was no room among the crowded buildings for apple trees and daffodils." Soon Mae and her mother find a park--and then they stumble on a magnificent florist's window dense with lush, tropical greenery. ("Florette" is the name of the store; readers may expect it to take a more central role, but Mae and her mother never return.) A small plant Mae finds nearby provides her with the start of a garden of her own--a garden that grows, and that draws, little by little, many new friends. Walker's carefully drafted watercolors capture the charm of Parisian streets (her biography attributes the story's inspiration to a Paris vacation). Stately, classic facades tower over the doll-like figures of Mae and the other children. On one level, it's a story that reminds readers that getting used to new places takes time. But it's the artwork that commands attention, and the way the florist's window offers Mae inspiration for the garden she creates. Ages 4-7. Agent: Stephen Barr, Writers House. (Feb.)

Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

A 2018 New York Times and New York Public Library Best Illustrated Picture Book
A Boston Globe Best Children's Book of the Year

"Light-skinned with bobbed chestnut hair tucked behind her ears, Mae tries to cheer herself up, which will deeply impress young readers who couldn't imagine being transplanted (and perhaps seem even more admirable to those who have!)." —Kirkus, STARRED Review

"This quietly told and beautifully illustrated story will resonate with other children who have been uprooted, but hope to flourish in a new home."—Booklist

"A worthy addition to the canon of books depicting young gardeners transforming spaces and lives."—School Library Journal

"Walker's carefully drafted watercolors capture the charm of Parisian streets."—Publishers Weekly