Starred review from March 23, 2009
Brown’s (Chowder
) latest is a quiet but stirring fable of urban renewal, sure to capture imaginations. In exploring his bleak city neighborhood, thoughtful Liam—in Brown’s warm, almost fuzzy acrylic spreads, he looks a little like a friendly, redheaded wooden puppet—notices that some flowering plants have appeared on an old elevated railway track. He teaches himself to care for them (“The flowers nearly drowned and he had a few pruning problems, but the plants patiently waited while Liam found better ways of gardening”), and the garden responds by “growing restless. It wanted to explore.” In one of several wordless spreads, Liam stands against a bright blue sky, surrounded by a thick patch of daisies. Spring brings a burst of new energy: “the tough little weeds and mosses set out first. They popped up farther and farther from the railway.... but the most surprising things that popped up were the new gardeners.” In Brown’s utopian vision, the urban and the pastoral mingle to joyfully harmonious effect—especially on the final pages, which show a city filled with rooftop gardens, fantastic topiaries, windmills and sparkling ponds. Ages 3–6.
April 1, 2009
Gr 1-3-"There once was a city without gardens or trees or greenery of any kind." Thus begins an eco-fantasy in which Liam climbs a stairway leading to abandoned railway tracks and discovers wildflowers and plants struggling to grow. Initially an inept gardener, the boy improves with time, and the garden begins to prosper. He continues his work after the winter snows, and diverse city residents of all ages join in the effort. Plants that spill over onto the letters of the title page foreshadow the glorious flowering to come. But first, readers experience, via Brown's framed acrylic and gouache spreads and vignettes, a smog-filled metropolis bereft of outdoor inhabitants except for Liam, who doggedly explores its dreary streets. Flat, stylized paintings depict the gradual greening of the city. Dark skies gradually become a strikingly blue home for birds; red buildings appear amid the gray ones; and the stark beginning endpapers transform into lush green flower-filled pages at the end. In a lengthy note, Brown explains that this fantasy is based on his real-life discovery of the defunct High Line elevated railway in New York City where he found plants growing amid the rubble. While the story lacks tension and is at times sentimental, the art is spectacular and the book might inspire children to engage in small projects to improve their own neighborhoods."Marianne Saccardi, formerly at Norwalk Community College, CT"
Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 15, 2009
Preschool-G In a city without gardens or trees or greenery of any kind, a young, curious boy, Liam, discovers a few spindly flowers on an elevated train track. With pruning shears and water (and a few songs), he nurtures the little patch until it thrives and starts to spread. Soon, the entire track is covered in lush green. Throughout the snowy winter, the boy dreams and reads about plants, and when spring comes, his flowers inspire more gardeners all over the city. The simple words have a lyrical, rhythmic quality that will read aloud well, and they reinforce the sense that the natural world is a living, breathing character. Its the illustrations, though, that will engage kids most. Combining panels with full-page illustrations and many wordless spreads, the pages show the citys inspiring progression from a dull, dreary placeto a fantastical, organic metropolis. An image of Liam on a stealth gardening mission, disguised in sunglasses, hat, and pint-size trenchcoat as he deposits sod and flowers onto a concrete strip, will amuse kids, even as it prompts them to think about unusual places gardens could grow in their own communities. An authors note about the storys real-life roots concludes. For more books about young gardeners, see the accompanying feature, Read-alikes: Green Thumbs.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)
July 1, 2009
Liam, who lives in a slightly surreal "city without gardens or trees or greenery of any kind," turns an abandoned railway into a green paradise. When his garden overruns the city, it's cause for celebration, not complaint. The book's look-for-beauty-where-you-least-expect-it message is best delivered in a series of dramatic acrylic and gouache wordless double-page spreads featuring the fruits of Liam's labor.
(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)