About This Book:
A timely, inspiring, and uplifting story about hope and the power of creative expression from one of the world’s most treasured storytellers
After a long, cold winter, doors finally open, and children spill out like candies from a box. Amanda is the last one out of the apartment building, with a carton of chalk in her hands. On every inch of the pavement outside, the children draw pictures of flowers and trees, mushrooms and snails, and a few very unexpected things. It’s a concrete garden. Their creativity, unfettered in the open air, brings something beautiful, something hopeful, to the residents there, and to many more across the globe. From master storyteller Bob Graham comes a charming, gentle post-pandemic story about finding optimism after a dark spell, and the nurturing power of community friendships in an urban setting. The Concrete Garden will resonate with anyone who has been apart from their loved ones, and will encourage us all to find the brightness and color within ourselves.
*Review Contributed by Karen Yingling, Staff Reviewer*
There are a few masks at the beginning of the book, worn by the adults, do this might require a little historical background for young readers who were born after the COVID-19 lockdown. A note at the beginning mentions that this book was written during that time, but there isn’t anything more about the pandemic. The people on the balconies cheering, however, will evoke memories in older readers.
This is a great book to pair with other books that highlight neighborhood art, like Campoy and Howells’ Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood or Verde and Parra’s Hey, Wall: A Story of Art and Community, and is also great for fostering a sense of community through sharing, like Kramer and Wen’s Empanadas for Everyone.
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