Moving Words About a Flower
by K. C. Hayes; illus. by Barbara Chotiner
Preschool    Charlesbridge    40 pp.    g
3/22    978-1-62354-165-1    $16.99
e-book ed.  978-1-63289-961-3    $9.99

A seed grows into a dandelion and becomes a ball of seeds that scatter. In a book that relies on typographical creativity to relate information, text placement mimics what’s happening in the story. On the opening spread, for instance, “a million silver raindrops… / falling, falling, falling… / hitting the sidewalk with a splash” takes the form of an active rainstorm. On the subsequent spread, the text about the post-storm rainbow is set in an arc shape, each line a different color. A sprout pops up in the city sidewalk, revealing the buttery-yellow petals of a dandelion. Soon, it’s “a feathery / white ball of / seeds,” which then sail on the wind and land far away in a green field. One dandelion survives to spread its seeds again. The book’s playful visual imagery, which also includes various font colors, makes for an engaging read; the text not only forms concrete shapes but also conveys movement (the title’s “moving words”) and successfully communicates the scientific elements of the story (e.g., lines of text shaped like roots in the soil). Back matter provides more facts about these “tough” flowers and their life cycle.

From the March/April 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.