SUNFLOWER SEEDS

Seeds planted at the end of kindergarten become towering sunflowers as summer comes to a close.

Ms. B gives each of her students four seeds: “one for the birds, / one for the rain, / one to taste, / and one to grow.” The unnamed student narrator describes how each seed is carefully planted in a cup, watered, placed on a windowsill in the sun, and diligently observed by the kids. At home, the narrator’s first-person plural changes to the singular as the seedlings—dubbed Yoda, Kermit, and the Hulk—continue to grow. Tragically, a storm drowns the Hulk, and then a deer trims Yoda’s leaves. Even so, Yoda continues to grow alongside Kermit till both are taller than the narrator and Kermit looms over “our neighbor Sam, / who is the tallest human I know.” Heck’s understated text conveys the narrator’s awe, expressed in precise descriptions of the flowers in all their phases. She offers ample space for readers to admire her paintings, done in thickly applied oil. The brown paper backdrops lend warmth to the characters’ skin tones and act as negative space that defines Heck’s compositions, often to startling effect. The backgrounds also contrast with the textured strokes of yellow and gold, set against heartbreaking blues; they cannot help recalling van Gogh, though these blooms are never confined to a vase. The narrator presents white; the classmates are racially diverse.

Gorgeous.