Watch Me Bloom

April 17, 2023
Two dozen appreciative haiku celebrate flora such as daffodils, hollyhock, foxglove, and beyond in a picture book that highlights flowers’ unique attributes with spare but vivid imagery. Snow-defying snowdrops and Valentine’s Day roses open the collection, which builds across the global north’s seasonal calendar, from springtime’s cherry blossoms and summer’s sunflowers up to festive winter poinsettias. Patel-Sage frequently links the varietals to themes such as confidence, growth, and strength. In “Borage,” “Planted side-by-side,/ garden stars make perfect friends,/ helping others grow.” Hollyhock’s “showy faces, look outward,/ proud and confident.” Other plant descriptions incorporate intergenerational references: azaleas come “from granny’s childhood” and fuchsia is “Grandpa’s pride and joy.” Appropriately sunny illustrations feature figures of varying abilities, creeds, and skin tones making daisy chains with a caregiver, greeting neighbors, and playing outdoors in a work that’s likely to inspire many garden daydreams. Ages 4–9.

March 1, 2023
Preschool-Grade 2 A book of haiku / about flowers grows readers / who admire nature. Twenty-four mindful haiku about flowers that can be grown or found wild will delight young gardeners and naturalists. In this nature-themed successor to the creator's My Mindful A to Zen (2021), an assortment of children and adults move through the seasons in settings both urban and rural, admiring such flowers as the daisy and borage through evocative haiku about the blooms. In one cheerful, springtime spread, rain falls on daffodils--"Bright, happy trumpets / call in golden sunshine to / cheer up rainy days"--and bluebells--"Fairy umbrellas / crowded together in a / woodland sea of blue." A range of abilities, skin tones, faiths, and family structures are suggested by the digital artwork, and many of the poetic offerings reflect connections to cultural heritage or ancestral homelands. The book's overall effect encourages reflection and awareness of nature to benefit health, and it concludes with "Five Ways to Wellbeing" as well as a delightful spread of "Floral Fun Facts."

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2023

K-Gr 4-This colorful collection of haiku that pays homage to flowers is sure to brighten readers' days. Each page contains a haiku devoted to a different flower variety and an illustration that shows people interacting with one another in natural settings that depict the flower from the poem. The haiku are presented in seasonally appropriate order, starting with flowers associated with early winter months, like snowdrops and roses for Valentine's Day, and progressing all the way to orchids and poinsettias, perfect for end-of-year holiday gift giving. People depicted in the illustrations are diverse in age, race, and gender. Illustrations are bright and inviting, resembling a papercut style that works well with the cheery floral poetry. A "Floral Fun Facts" section at the end of the text includes interesting tidbits about each of the flowers reflected in the poems. There is also a final note that each entry in the book highlights one or more of the "five ways to wellbeing," which help improve mental health. Educators teaching about haiku will find this collection helpful to illustrate how versatile the form can be. VERDICT Poetry fans and educators alike will enjoy this bright and cheery collection of floral-focused haiku.-Ellen Conlin

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2022
Twenty-four haiku / link flowers and mindfulness / in every season! In the same spirit as her My Mindful A to Zen: 26 Wellbeing Haiku for Happy Little Minds (2021), Patel-Sage addresses readers with haiku that only seem to be about flowers: "Snowdrop," for instance--"Pushing up through snow / these delicate flowers are / stronger than they look"--likely refers obliquely to a child using a wheelchair in the accompanying illustration. Similarly, a child poses heroically in front of "proud and confident" hollyhocks, the value of "Borage" as a companion plant is reflected in the intimate glance two young gardeners exchange, and cherry blossoms "gently fall like a / joyful springtime gift" over one child receiving a folded paper crane from another. Along with being racially and culturally diverse, the smiling, wide-eyed cast includes a youngster using a prosthetic limb, an adult couple of ambiguous gender in a Christmas scene, and what appears to be a same-sex couple in a Hindu-style wedding. "Floral Fun Facts" about some of the selected flowers at the end add light doses of lore and natural science. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A bright bouquet of poems, petals, and values. (Picture-book poetry. 6-9)

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