Review by Booklist Review
Saanvi, as a little girl, moves to a new house and grows close to Helen, her elderly neighbor. Together over the years, they nurture and observe various birds, play cards, and generally enjoy each others' company. One night, Saanvi is awoken by the lights of an ambulance, which is taking Helen to the hospital. Saanvi watches as Helen's house sits unoccupied and is eventually sold and torn down. This wordless graphic novel is understated in a finely lined style, with texture added in the form of rubbings and colored pencil lines. Illustrations appear mostly in yellow, green, and blue, with a pop or two of red in most panels. Saanvi's loss and sorrow is powerfully portrayed when she sees Helen's gardens fade away to nothing. Eventually, Saanvi finds a card she'd lost while playing with Helen, and she finds inspiration to create her own garden to honor her friend. This story of intergenerational friendship told with warmth and realism might seem too young for fans of Sarah W. Searle's Sincerely, Harriet, but it's nevertheless worth recommending to them.--Suzanne Temple Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Horn Book Review
Wordless panels explore intergenerational friendships, nature, and the process of grief, starting when a young girl and her mom move into a new neighborhood. Riding around on her tricycle, the child notices her elderly neighbor across the street feeding the birds. As time passes (the tricycle makes way for a bicycle; the girl gets taller), the child and her neighbor begin to care for the birds together, as well as playing cards and sharing stories. The two delight in the natural world, observing, among other wonders, a hummingbird, a majestic hawk, and baby birds hatching and then fledging. One night the girl wakes to see her neighbor being carried away on a stretcher; in the illustrations, disturbing red circles from the ambulance lights add to the sense of tension and urgency. Over the space of a few intense panels, autumn turns to winter, the birds are left to fend for themselves, and the neighbors house is sold and then razed. A found memento of their friendship finally triggers the girl into reckoning with her grief. When spring arrives, she begins to care for the birds again on her own, honoring her friend and bringing the joys of nature back to her neighborhood. Equally heartbreaking and encouraging, this moving look at meaningful friendship offers valuable honesty and insight. Julie Roach January/February 2020 p.68(c) Copyright 2020. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
This wordless graphic novel is surprisingly direct in its treatment of intergenerational friendship, grief, and hope.Casson's four-color illustrationsrendered in colored pencil, Photoshop, and pastelgently take up Cassidy's story of a mother and her young child who move into a new neighborhood and befriend an elderly neighbor: Helen. Panels of varying sizes trace the child's friendship with Helen over what appears to be several years as they play cards, read together, and study the birds that visit Helen's yard. One night, the child is awakened by sirens and flashing lights, silently conveyed through disorienting, large red circles splashed across the pages. From the window, the child sees Helen being loaded into an ambulance; within two pages, Helen's house is for sale. The child observes workmen removing Helen's bird feeder and birdbath before the house itself is demolished, but the child does not appear to process the grief triggered by Helen's passing until discovering one of their playing cards in the construction rubble. Facing grief seems to empower the child to move forward and carry on Helen's legacy, tenderly rescuing a bird's nest from a bush on Helen's old property. Soon, the neighborhood is bursting with bird song once more. The three main characters, and indeed all others excepting two brown-skinned passersby, have yellow skin that could be read here as white.A moving testimony to the process of navigating abrupt, painful changeand the life-altering impact of true friendship. (Graphic novel. 6-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
