Moving Words About a Flower

Concrete poetry centers a dandelion’s life cycle across seasons and landscapes in this high-spirited picture book. After a summer thunderstorm graces a city, a child with brown skin, black curls, and blue eyes spots “a tiny sprout” in a sidewalk crack, one that grows into a yellow dandelion and then “a feathery/ white ball of/ seeds” before blowing to a more rural northerly clime. Hayes’s words pop dynamically off the pages, forming shapes that mimic the lines’ meaning, while Chotiner’s textural, action-packed art shows phrases reverberating like a lightning flash, forming a rainbow-like arc, and rooting in soil as a seedling, among other shapes. The story comes pleasingly full circle when a second child, portrayed with light brown skin, plucks a dandelion from a field and gives the seeds a satisfying blow, beginning the journey anew. Back matter chronicles the life cycle of a dandelion. Ages 3–7. (Mar.)