Cactus and Flower: A Book About Life Cycles

by Sarah Williamson

Overview

This bright, gentle, thoughtful picture book explores friendship and natural life cycles for readers young and old

Cactus and Flower spend their days in the desert, side by side.
They watch the sun come up; they watch the sun go down. They play with their animal friends. And they grow, slowly but surely. Then one day, Flower loses a petal.
Cactus and Flower know what this means. But they know, too, that this is the way life goes: Slowly but surely, petals will fall, and new buds will bloom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419743375
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	04/07/2020
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	747,843
Product dimensions:	7.85(w) x 11.30(h) x 0.45(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Sarah Williamson studied political philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and illustration at the ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles. She is the author and illustrator of Where Are You? and Let’s Go! Williamson lives in New York and works at the New York Times as a freelance art director. She loves to travel and go on adventures.

Editorial Reviews

"The long-living cacti serve as sturdy friends to the flowers that grow on them, from bud to flower to demise to rebirth, and provide children with a clear introduction to the concept of life cycles."

Booklist

2020-02-09
A saguaro cactus and its own flower become good friends and immerse themselves in the exuberance of life.

They share these “butterfly days” by admiring the many-colored desert sky, the bright stars at night, and the various wild birds and animals. Life is great for the two “buds” until the terrible day a petal is lost to the wind—soon to be followed by all. Cactus is inconsolable—not even a confluence of “all the butterflies in the world” can cheer him. Finally, memories of his friend start evoking joy instead of pain. When a new flower blooms, Cactus is ready to embrace life’s mysteries and inevitabilities. Williamson’s whimsical portrayal of Sonoran desert animals is the high point of this rather flat paean to the cycle of life. Disappointingly, the author/illustrator presents myriad inaccuracies that elicit first puzzlement and then eye rolls among readers familiar with the region. True saguaro flower clusters are ivory and yellow; the solitary pink flower looks like that of the hedgehog cactus—a different species altogether. Readers may also note that befriending the flower is akin to befriending one’s elbow—it is a part of the cactus. It does not, as indicated in the story, live side by side with the saguaro. Despite the subtitle, neither the life cycle of the saguaro nor its blossom’s is discussed in any way, shape, or form.

This well-intended fable founders amid misrepresentation of basic desert botany. (Picture book. 5-7)

Kirkus Reviews