Sunflower seeds

A rising first grader has a magnificent sunflower summer in this homespun-feeling story from Heck (Golden Gate). After a teacher reads a book about the yellow blooms, the students are given a chance to plant three seeds of their own ("one for the birds, one for the rain, and one to grow"), and they eagerly watch as green dots burst forth into fast-growing seedlings. When summer arrives, only one of the plants brought home by the narrating protagonist, a pale-skinned child, achieves its full height, but it nevertheless wows. Steadily paced narration that maintains a sense of awe is scientifically detailed and deliberate, and thickly applied oil paint on brown paper gives the yellow-tinged illustrations a diorama-like dimensionality reminiscent of van Gogh's sunflower paintings. When the bloom yields upwards of a thousand seeds spilled across a spread, the whole cycle seems poised to occur again, and a concluding moment knowingly nods to the power of a good book for kicking off something new. Characters are portrayed with various abilities and skin tones. Ages 4--8. Agent: Jordan Hamessley, JABberwocky Literary. (Aug.)

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.(Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.