Sidewalk Flowers

by JonArno Lawson, Sydney Smith (Illustrator)

Overview

Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Illustrated Book

A New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year

In this wordless picture book, a little girl collects wildflowers while her distracted father pays her little attention. Each flower becomes a gift, and whether the gift is noticed or ignored, both giver and recipient are transformed by their encounter.

“Written” by award-winning poet JonArno Lawson and brought to life by illustrator Sydney Smith, Sidewalk Flowers is an ode to the importance of small things, small people and small gestures.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7

Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554984312
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	03/01/2015
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

JONARNO LAWSON is the author of numerous books for children and adults, including The Playgrounds of Babel, illustrated by Piet Grobler, and Leap!, illustrated by Josée Bisaillon. He has also collaborated on books with Nelson Ball, Alec Dempster, Nahid Kazemi, Amjad Jaimoukha, Qin Leng, Daniel Ratthei and Sherwin Tjia. His most recent book is Wise Up! Wise Down!, a collaboration with the poet John Agard, illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura. JonArno lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his family.

SYDNEY SMITH is the creator of Do You Remember? (Boston–Globe Horn Book Award, Sheila Barry Best Canadian Picturebook) and Small in the City (Kate Greenaway Medal, Ezra Jack Keats Award, Governor General’s Award). His award-winning books include Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson; Town Is by the Sea by Joanne Schwartz and I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott. He has won the Hans Christian Andersen Award and five NYT Best Illustrated Book of the Year citations. Sydney lives in Halifax, NS.

Editorial Reviews

It's wordless, but in this instance language would seem intrusive or didactic. The absence of text seems to provide a more eloquent and nuanced story, one that allows children to freely share their perceptions of the narrative…What might have been a trite, sentimental tale about the power of giving is instead something to treasure. I'd give this book to anyone with a coffee table, in a household with or without children.

The New York Times Book Review - Carmela Ciuraru

Sidewalk Flowers wraps readers in kindness, tenderness, generosity and wonder.

STARRED REVIEW Quill & Quire

An emotionally moving, visually delightful ode to the simple powers of observation and empathy. . . . A book to savor slowly and then revisit again and again.

STARRED REVIEW School Library Journal

A poignant, wordless storyline . . . this ode to everyday beauty sings sweetly.

STARRED REVIEW Kirkus

A quiet, graceful book about the perspective-changing wonder of humble, everyday pleasures.

STARRED REVIEW Booklist

I’d give this book to anyone with a coffee table, in a household with or without children.

New York Times

A reminder that what looks like play can sometimes be a sacrament.

STARRED REVIEW Publishers Weekly

Affecting, efficient, moving, kind. Lawson’s done the impossible. He wrote poetry into a book without a single word, and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

A Fuse #8 Production Blog

Affecting, efficient, moving, kind. Lawson’s done the impossible. He wrote poetry into a book without a single word, and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

A Fuse #8 Production

Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Illustrated Books
Winner of the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award
Winner of the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award
Winner of the Booksource Scout Award, Favorite Picture Book
Winner of the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award for Book Illustration
A New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year
A Horn Book Fanfare Selection
A Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book of the Year
A School Library Journal Best Picture Book of the Year
An ALA Notable Children's Book
A New York Public Library Best 100 Books for Reading and Sharing
A Cybils Award winner, Fiction Picture Book
A USBBY Outstanding International Book
A National Post Best Book of the Year
A NCTE Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children Recommended Book
A 49th Shelf Favourite Picture Book of the Year
Finalist for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Picture Book
A Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the Year, 2016

"I’d give this book to anyone with a coffee table." — New York Times

"A poignant, wordless storyline . . . this ode to everyday beauty sings sweetly." — Kirkus, starred review  

"A reminder that what looks like play can sometimes be a sacrament." — Publishers Weekly, starred review

"An emotionally moving, visually delightful ode to the simple powers of observation and empathy. . . . A book to savor slowly and then revisit again and again." — School Library Journal, starred review

"A quiet, graceful book about the perspective-changing wonder of humble, everyday pleasures." — Booklist, starred review

"Sidewalk Flowers is picture-book perfection." -Shelf Awarenss, starred review

"This incredibly special wordless picture book explores the way in which accidental flowers, flowers some people even consider weeds, can bring color and brightness to a city world." — Through the Looking Class Children's Book Reviews, Editor's Choice

"Affecting, efficient, moving, kind. Lawson’s done the impossible. He wrote poetry into a book without a single word, and you wouldn’t have it any other way." — A Fuse #8 Production

From the Publisher

★ 2015-01-03
A child in a red hoodie and a man on a cellphone navigate an urban landscape, the child picking flowers from cracks and crannies along the way.Best known for his nonsense verse, Lawson here provides a poignant, wordless storyline, interpreted by Smith in sequential panels. The opening spread presents the child and (probably) dad walking in a gray urban neighborhood. The child's hoodie is the only spot of color against the gray wash—except for the dandelions growing next to a sidewalk tree, begging to be picked. The rest of their walk proceeds in similar fashion, occasional hints of color (a fruit stand, glass bottles in a window) joining the child and the flowers she (judging by the haircut) plucks from cracks in the concrete. Smith's control of both color and perspective is superb, supporting a beautifully nuanced emotional tone. Though the streets are gray, they are not hostile, and though dad is on the cellphone, he also holds the child's hand and never exhibits impatience as she stops. Once the child has collected a bouquet, she shares it, placing a few flowers on a dead bird, next to a man sleeping on a bench, in a friendly dog's collar. As child and dad draw closer to home, color spreads across the pages; there is no narrative climax beyond readers' sharing of the child's quiet sense of wonder. Bracketed by beautiful endpapers, this ode to everyday beauty sings sweetly. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews