Have You Ever Seen a Flower?
by Shawn Harris; illus. by the author
Preschool, Primary    Chronicle    48 pp.    g
5/21    978-1-4521-8270-4    $17.99
e-book ed.  978-1-4521-8292-6    $11.99

The child in Harris’s pencil illustrations first appears as a bright patch of color within a grayscale cityscape and then emerges into a rainbow world of blooms. The pictures have a rich visual texture, vibrant color, and a naive style, which together imply a child as ostensible artist. This effect is well aligned with the playfully inquisitive text, with rhythm and repetition akin to books by Margaret Wise Brown and Ruth Krauss: “Have you ever seen a flower? I mean really…seen a flower? I mean way down in the clover with your face down in a flower?” The text’s direct address invites viewers and readers not just to see a flower alongside the child but to engage in a multisensory experience of communing with nature. Have you ever seen a book quite like this? Not likely.

From the July/August 2021 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.