Review: Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson and Sydney Smith (art)

 

Hardcover, 32 pages
Expected publication: March 17th 2015 by Groundwood Books
Source: Publisher

Sidewalk Flowers follows in the wordless tradition of The Arrival by Shaun Tan by setting forth for the reader a narrative unencumbered by words. The premise is simple enough: a little girl is out on an errand with her father. They walk through the city, stopping to peruse through shops and knick knacks and the little girl picks whatever flowers (or weeds as adults would call them) she comes across on their track. Once she has picked enough flowers, she starts bestowing them on different animals and people.

The art is initially done in black and white with colours set aside for the little girl who wears a red hood (more on this later), the flowers she picks, and little things that catch her attention. Then as the girl gets nearer to home and her neighbourhood, the palette of colours suddenly increases until everything and everyone is in colour. I am assuming that the colour returns with the girl’s recognition of things familiar to her such as her neighbours’ houses, her house, her mother and siblings. What surprises me though is that her father isn’t in colour through her sojourn in the city and I wonder about that. He is familiar to her so he ought to have been in colour as well. That he isn’t is interesting.

Source: http://www.philnel.com/2015/02/22/sidewalkflowers/

The beauty of Sidewalk Flowers is in the opportunity it offers the reader to take a look at the world through eyes that are young and fascinated by things adults would perhaps take for granted or not even notice for example, the pattern on a woman’s dress or the colours of a bottle in a musty shop. The detail in the art is such that one need not read words to the effect to hear the multitude of voices on the street or smell the fruit displayed at the grocers. The little girl’s red hood is (perhaps meant as) an allusion to the tale of Red Riding Hood where another little girl goes on a journey. She, too, picks flowers and strays from the path but the protagonist of Sidewalk Flowers is far luckier–her father, though often distracted by phones or conversations, accompanies her and keeps her safe.

There is a wee bit of sentiment that felt a bit forced (the girl leaving flowers on a dead bird) but on the whole, I thought the recipients of the flowers are cute and a reflection of the little girl and childhood.

The picturebook can be used in several ways in a classroom. It can be “read” for entertainment, used by children with interest in art (lots of things to talk about here, the use of shadow, the sparing application of colour), or used as a tool to teach writing: provide a narrative to match the story either written or verbal. It can also be used to teach the meaning of perspective. Sidewalk Flowers is beautiful and it honestly does feel like spring. I strongly recommend it for your library, classroom or personal collection.