Blossom Tales: Flower Stories of Many Folk - Hardcover

Patricia Hruby Powell is an award-winning storyteller and community arts specialist, as well as a children's librarian. She was cited as one of the nation's most successful community artists by the NEA-sponsored program American Creates for the Millennium. An avid organic gardener, she has grown all the flowers from the book.

Sarah Dillard studied art at Wheaton Collect (BA) and at the Rhode Island School of Design (MAE). She works full-time at illustrating--in the stationery and giftware markets and in educational publishing, including work for Leapfrog.

Kindergarten-Grade 3-Fourteen brief tales about different flowers. In a story from Sicily, a poor boy's kindness to an old woman is repaid in part with crocuses, while in a Russian tale, a dwarf shows a poor man how to make a living with the beautiful snapdragons that surround his home. The Great Spirit settles a quarrel by turning squabbling chiefs into columbines in an Iroquois legend, a sad Japanese tale features peonies, and a young couple's loyalty and heroism are at the heart of a Hawaiian story about the origins of the morning glory. These tales and the others are presented, for the most part, on one page facing a gouache illustration in muted jewel tones on the other. The selections are brief to the point of being skimpy, and there are no source notes except for the bibliography of titles. The illustrations are appealing, and there is great potential in the concept, but most libraries can pass on this one.
Donna L. Scanlon, Lancaster County Library, PA
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