Amanda lives on the 15th floor of a huge block of apartments. It’s been a cold, cold winter but she’s standing at the lift doors waiting to go down, holding a big box her mum gave her.
The lift doors open and it’s filled with other children, she squeezes in with her box.
Out from the building the children spill, ‘like sweets from a box’. Amanda is last with her box. The box is full of chalks.
Amanda chooses green first, drawing a pattern on the concrete ground, Jackson came along and added a stalk to her pattern, making a picture of a dandelion. Janet worked on making a picture of a mushroom. Bradley added flowers. Luke’s dog Alfie was in trouble for smudging the flowers.Indira added a palm tree! There were suddenly butterflies, balloons and a bumblebee.
From the concrete rose a beautiful garden.
Nasri is lonely for her mum in Isfahan so she takes a picture from a balcony from up high and sends it with a message to her mum. Her mum shares the picture and it goes around the world, filling the hearts of those who see it. The people in the concrete apartment block all come to their balconies and applaud.
This story shines a light of hope and joy after the years of being separated by the pandemic or for those who have loved ones far away. And, even though we may live in a city environment, we can have colour and importantly always have our community.
Bob Graham is such a clever writer and illustrator. He allows the children to show us that you can always find the joy in life and we can do it together.
Reviewed by Jane Stephens
Age Guide 3+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bob Graham is a Kate Greenaway-winning author-illustrator who has written and illustrated many acclaimed children’s picture books including How to Heal a Broken Wing, How the Sun Got to Coco’s House, Max, Jethro Byrde: Fairy Child and April Underhill: Tooth Fairy. His 2011 title, A Bus Called Heaven, is endorsed by Amnesty International UK and was the winner of the 2012 Children’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year Award – a prize Bob has won an unprecedented six times. In 2014, Silver Buttons was awarded a prestigious Prime Minister’s Literary Award in Australia. Bob lives in Melbourne.
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