LUCY'S BLOOMS

An optimistic little girl’s in for a surprise when she enters a flower contest.

Discovering “hundreds and hundreds of bright, yellow blooms” growing behind Gram’s house, Lucy decides to enter a clump of them in the upcoming Flower Festival, hoping to win a blue ribbon for her grandmother. After transferring blooms into a flowerpot, Lucy returns to Gram, who’s whistling a song. Next morning, Lucy notices her thirsty blooms drooping and whistles as she waters them. That night, Gram tells Lucy a story about daisies, and the following day, when Lucy finds her blooms “curled and crisp” from too much sun, she repeats Gram’s story while shifting them into shade. On the day of the festival, Lucy finds her blooms shriveled from cold, and she revives them with sun, water, whistling, stories, dancing, and love. She enters her blooms in the contest only to learn they’re disqualified as a “bunch of weeds.” Lucy’s disappointed, but her blooms remain winners in her eyes. Using flat patterns, textures, and bright colors, the illustrations reveal Lucy as a dark-haired, wide-eyed, freckled, tan-skinned, smiling girl whose energetic, upbeat personality radiates off the page whether she’s dancing in fields of dandelions, nurturing her pot of dandelions, sharing sunsets and stories with silver-haired Gram (who presents White), or celebrating the shimmering beauty of dandelions going to seed. Close-ups of Lucy reinforce the pervasive theme of love.

A nurturing, affirmative, happy tale.