1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lawson, JonArno. Sidewalk Flowers. Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2015. ISBN: 978-155-498-431-2.
2. PLOT SUMMARY
A father and daughter are walking home through the city. The father is busy on his cellphone while the pair make their way home, meanwhile his young daughter focuses not on getting from point A to point B, but on all the unexpected color and beauty that she finds along the way.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Sidewalk Flowers is a delightful, wordless picture book that illustrates the beauty of the wonderment of children that can often get lost in the adult world. Sydney Smith, the illustrator, does a tremendous job of pulling the readers' eyes to the little girl in the book by putting her in a bright red hoodie. The girl's coat stands out against the harsh concrete gray color of the city. Periodically, Smith would allow some whimsy through the color in a flowered dress or in the wildflowers/weeds that the little girl found on her journey. The book is particularly touching when, after collecting her flowers, the little girl gives the unexpected beauty to others who she thinks needs some color and beauty in their lives.
Lawson and Smith portray an average commuter day in a Canadian city quite well. They show that in a city there are lots of different, diverse people going places, working, shopping, etc. The idea for Sidewalk Flowers came to Lawson one day when he was walking home with his own daughter. "As we walked, she gathered little flowers out of the sidewalk cracks -- the street seemed grey and ugly, and I realized she was seeing the beauty in it, and I wasn't seeing it. I was rushing and missing everything," Lawson said (Cerny, 2015).
The emotional authenticity that Lawson gives the book is one that children and adults can relate to, particularly when the daughter honors a dead bird in the book with some of her flowers. It's acknowledgment of life's coldness with a level of empathy children have for the hard truths at a very early age.
4. AWARDS AND REVIEW EXCERPTS
CCBC Choices — 2016 Picture Books for School Age Children Award
Kirkus Reviews, Best Children's Books of 2015, Picture Books
Booklist, Best Picture Books, 2015
Publishers Weekly, Best, Children's Books of 2015, Picture
From School Library Journal (March 2015)
"If I had my way [JonArno Lawson's] name would grace the tongue of every children's librarian in America. However, he is both Canadian and a poet and the dual combination dooms his recognition in the United States... A kid who grows up in a busy city finds a comfort in its every day bustle... you pay far more attention to her actions than her emotions."
From Quill and Quire (March 2015)
"The book provides much for parents and kids to discuss, including death, cultural diversity, and the beauty that can be found in unexpected places. While the emphasis will vary from child to child and family to family, Sidewalk Flowers wraps readers in kindness, tenderness, generosity, and wonder -- things we can never have too much of."
5. CONNECTIONS
After reading Sidewalk Flowers take your students on a walk around the school to see what beauty they might see that you miss. Are there dandelions, clovers, violets available for them to pick if the season is appropriate? If so, incorporate theses into an open-ended art activity, where the children can glue the flowers into a picture they draw or shape the flowers into something. Grab crayons and thin tracing paper and let them try rubbings.
If the season is not friendly to fresh flowers, have the children identify who in their lives might enjoy having flowers and create them using tissue paper and pipe cleaners. Then they can distribute them, as they see fit to the people in their communities.
6. REFERENCES
Cerny, Dory. "Honors stack up for JonArno Lawson and Sydney Smith's Sidewalk Flowers." Quill and Quire. Accessed September 6, 2017. http://www.quillandquire.com/book-news/2015/10/29/honours-stack-up-for-jonarno-lawson-and-sydney-smiths-sidewalk-flowers.
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