Saanvi, as a little girl, moves to a new house and grows close to Helen, her elderly neighbor. Together over the years, they nurture and observe various birds, play cards, and generally enjoy each others' company. One night, Saanvi is awoken by the lights of an ambulance, which is taking Helen to the hospital. Saanvi watches as Helen's house sits unoccupied and is eventually sold and torn down. This wordless graphic novel is understated in a finely lined style, with texture added in the form of rubbings and colored pencil lines. Illustrations appear mostly in yellow, green, and blue, with a pop or two of red in most panels. Saanvi's loss and sorrow is powerfully portrayed when she sees Helen's gardens fade away to nothing. Eventually, Saanvi finds a card she'd lost while playing with Helen, and she finds inspiration to create her own garden to honor her friend. This story of intergenerational friendship told with warmth and realism might seem too young for fans of Sarah W. Searle's Sincerely, Harriet, but it's nevertheless worth recommending to them.

Wordless panels explore intergenerational friendships, nature, and the process of grief, starting when a young girl and her mom move into a new neighborhood. Riding around on her tricycle, the child notices her elderly neighbor across the street feeding the birds. As time passes (the tricycle makes way for a bicycle; the girl gets taller), the child and her neighbor begin to care for the birds together, as well as playing cards and sharing stories. The two delight in the natural world, observing, among other wonders, a hummingbird, a majestic hawk, and baby birds hatching and then fledging. One night the girl wakes to see her neighbor being carried away on a stretcher; in the illustrations, disturbing red circles from the ambulance lights add to the sense of tension and urgency. Over the space of a few intense panels, autumn turns to winter, the birds are left to fend for themselves, and the neighbor's house is sold and then razed. A found memento of their friendship finally triggers the girl into reckoning with her grief. When spring arrives, she begins to care for the birds again on her own, honoring her friend and bringing the joys of nature back to her neighborhood. Equally heartbreaking and encouraging, this moving look at meaningful friendship offers valuable honesty and insight.

This wordless graphic novel is surprisingly direct in its treatment of intergenerational friendship, grief, and hope.Casson's four-color illustrations—rendered in colored pencil, Photoshop, and pastel—gently take up Cassidy's story of a mother and her young child who move into a new neighborhood and befriend an elderly neighbor: Helen. Panels of varying sizes trace the child's friendship with Helen over what appears to be several years as they play cards, read together, and study the birds that visit Helen's yard. One night, the child is awakened by sirens and flashing lights, silently conveyed through disorienting, large red circles splashed across the pages. From the window, the child sees Helen being loaded into an ambulance; within two pages, Helen's house is for sale. The child observes workmen removing Helen's bird feeder and birdbath before the house itself is demolished, but the child does not appear to process the grief triggered by Helen's passing until discovering one of their playing cards in the construction rubble. Facing grief seems to empower the child to move forward and carry on Helen's legacy, tenderly rescuing a bird's nest from a bush on Helen's old property. Soon, the neighborhood is bursting with bird song once more. The three main characters, and indeed all others excepting two brown-skinned passersby, have yellow skin that could be read here as white.A moving testimony to the process of navigating abrupt, painful change—and the life-altering impact of true friendship. (Graphic novel. 6-10)

Gr 4-6 -In this wordless graphic novel, a young girl named Saanvi experiences the loss of her elderly neighbor and friend, Helen. Readers see the friendship develop over the years, since Saanvi was a small child. Often, the girl helps Helen feed the different birds that visit Helen's yard. One night, Saanvi is awakened by red lights as Helen is taken away in an ambulance. When Helen does not return, Saanvi grieves, watching as the woman's house is put up for sale and eventually demolished. Noticing a nest in the one last tree standing in Helen's yard, Saanvi honors her friend's memory by constructing bird feeders and baths for her own home. Casson's artwork is quietly expressive, layering colored pencil and pastels atop Photoshop illustrations in a palette of muted reds, yellows, greens, and blues. Images of Helen's deserted property evoke Saanvi's grief as the season changes to winter and snow blankets the neighborhood. A rising springtime sun and the floating musical notes of chirping birds make Saanvi feel close to her friend once more. VERDICT A moving story of friendship and grief, this book is a silent treasure for upper elementary and middle grade collections.-Liz Allen, Middle Country Public Library, Centereach, NY