Review by Booklist Review
This appealing picture book takes viewers on a close-up tour of a garden to meet the flowers and their helpful friends, the insects, spiders, snails, birds, mice, and bats that visit them. A typical double-page spread introduces a flower along with its visitor and asks a question, such as "Why does a frog like sitting under a water lily?" The answer (in the back matter) is partly that the flower shades the frog, which dips into the water to keep its body moist. Meanwhile, the frog eats insects that might be harmful to the plant. Even children who know that bees and butterflies pollinate flowering plants may be surprised to learn that other pollinators include ladybugs, hummingbirds, geckos, mice, and bats. Rather than attempting to explain symbiosis, Wishinsky's age-appropriate text talks of friendships between flowers and animals and uses questions to engage her audience. Beginning with the dust jacket's image of a mouse peeking out of a tulip flower, Patkau's vibrantly colorful illustrations are eye-catching and helpful. An intriguing picture book on flowers and their friends.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2--This appealing work of creative nonfiction introduces readers to symbiotic relationships between flowers and various members of the animal kingdom. Species are presented in pairs with highly specialized relationships--butterfly and zinnia, hummingbird and honeysuckle. The inviting, open-ended questions on each page ("Why would a morning glory be happy to see a dragonfly?") allow space for adults and children to wonder together before flipping to the ample back matter to investigate the answer. Along the way, flowers are shown to be crucial sources of food, water, and shelter for the animals around them, as well as worthy organisms in their own right. Wishinsky's understated prose strikes a balance between straightforward facts and quiet lyricism, mining interest from simple truths found in the natural world. Patkau achieves striking realism in her mixed-media collage illustrations, from the delicate folds at the center of a pale rose to the blotchy markings on a frog's smooth skin. VERDICT Young readers will enjoy the accessible tone and engaging illustrations of this scientifically minded book; this is first-rate for browsing shelves or to round-out classroom collections.--Jonah Dragan
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Nature creates marvelous and beneficial partnerships. Besides being beautiful, elegant, and fragrant, flowers are helpful, supportive, and protective friends of fellow garden dwellers. Beginning with this quietly lovely book's first spread, blossoms proudly announce themselves in clear, simple prose and describe how they help their friends ("Kiss a butterfly," "Shade a frog"). Altogether, 12 symbiotic relationships are covered--between crocuses, zinnias, magnolias, roses, and tulips and creatures including butterflies, bumblebees, beetles, snails, ladybugs, mice, bats, and hummingbirds--most of them active pollinators. A thought-provoking question ("Why would a morning glory be happy to see a dragonfly?") about a specific flower-creature relationship at the bottom of each page stimulates visual literacy and creative and critical thinking. The remarkable digital illustrations, so photographically, lusciously lifelike that one can almost smell floral aromas wafting from the pages, call for readers' close scrutiny and attention to detail and suggest answers to the questions. If they don't bring responses to readers' minds quickly, the fact-packed backmatter about the flower-creature bonds will do the trick. The final illustrated page depicts the garden creatures shown previously in the book. For the text to be appreciated in its entirety without interruption, the flowers' "proclamations" should probably be read or listened to first; readers may then return to the beginning of the book and proceed with each question in turn. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A garden of gorgeous delights. (index of flowers) (Informational picture book. 4-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
