ALA Booklist (Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2017)

New to the city, Mae misses her old garden with its apple trees, daffodils, and butterflies. She tries to recreate them with chalk drawings in the empty courtyard outside her apartment building, but rain washes the pictures away. Upstairs, she draws plants on moving boxes, but they disappear after her parents unpack. Entranced by a store window displaying a verdant forest of plants, Mae plucks a green sprout from the sidewalk, plants it in a jar, and takes it to the courtyard. When neighborhood children bring out their potted plants to share, Mae gains a garden and friends as well. Captivating watercolor paintings will draw readers to this appealing picture book. Early illustrations emphasize Mae's small stature and her isolation within city scenes. But even when she stands in the rainy courtyard, looking at fading traces of her chalk drawings, other children are watching her through their windows. This quietly told and beautifully illustrated story will resonate with other children who have been uprooted, but hope to flourish in a new home.

Horn Book

When nature-loving Mae moves to the city, she struggles to find an urban replacement for the garden she's left behind. Eventually a bird leads her to a shop bursting with vibrant plants, which inspires Mae to plant a small sprout. A familiar story is bolstered by lyrical storytelling and delicate watercolor illustrations contrasting the drab, gray city with the verdant plant store--and, eventually, Mae's apartment-sized garden.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Mae is lonely after her family moves from the countryside into the city, and she misses growing things: -There was no room among the crowded buildings for apple trees and daffodils.- Soon Mae and her mother find a park-and then they stumble on a magnificent florist-s window dense with lush, tropical greenery. (-Florette- is the name of the store; readers may expect it to take a more central role, but Mae and her mother never return.) A small plant Mae finds nearby provides her with the start of a garden of her own-a garden that grows, and that draws, little by little, many new friends. Walker-s carefully drafted watercolors capture the charm of Parisian streets (her biography attributes the story-s inspiration to a Paris vacation). Stately, classic facades tower over the doll-like figures of Mae and the other children. On one level, it-s a story that reminds readers that getting used to new places takes time. But it-s the artwork that commands attention, and the way the florist-s window offers Mae inspiration for the garden she creates. Ages 4-7. Agent: Stephen Barr, Writers House. (Feb.)

School Library Journal (Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2017)

PreS-Gr 1 Moving is difficult for most people, but leaving a beloved garden to inhabit an urban apartment is quite an upheaval for this young protagonist: subdued neutral hues comprise the palette at this point, a situation Mae tries to rectify by drawing a chalk garden on the adjoining plaza and on the boxes piled up in her room. Alas, rain and her father's unpacking ruin her creations. Even a family outing to park swings seems doomed when Mae observes stones instead of grass, but spying an "apple-tree bird," the inquisitive girl discovers a luscious, blossoming paradiseenclosed in glass. Although "Florette" is closed, a tiny sprout is growing from a crack in the building. Potting it, she takes it to her plaza; when the view pulls back, this too has become a verdant oasis, with vines hanging from balconies and a diverse group of children playing among the flowerpots. The narration is restrained and tightly constructed, allowing the watercolor compositions to contrast the pale citypunctuated with the smallest spots of pigmentwith the many shades and shapes of greenery in the botanical garden; that page turn is spectacular. VERDICT A worthy addition to the canon of books depicting young gardeners transforming spaces and lives, such as Sarah Stewart's The Gardener and Peter Brown's The Curious Garden. Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library