This book is sweet for introducing flowers and pollinators to the very smallest naturalists. It was a bit simple for my 3 and 5 year old, but I would love it for my 18 month old. It would make a sweet board book for her to explore on her own after being read to. My older children mostly enjoyed the last few pages that had information about the pollinators.

This is a really great book about how one thing can be so many different things to different people and that is a beautiful thing.

A Flower is a Friend, written by Frieda Wishinsky and illustrated by Karen Patkau, is a children's picturebook currently scheduled for release on May 2 2023. In the garden ecosystem, a flower means many things to each bird, insect, and creature. What does a flower do? They may not seem active to human eyes, but for the creatures of the garden they dust a bumblebee, shade a frog, feed a hummingbird, and serve as the center of a buzzing, humming, thrumming community.

A Flower is a Friend is a very engaging and informative picturebook. The text is pretty simple and asks readers questions about flowers and how creatures interact with them. I think it does a good job of getting the youngest readers to think about how connected nature is, and to get them to ask questions about it. I really enjoyed the artwork, which I found to be the star of this book. There is a close-up view of each mouse, frog, and butterfly with a flower, and each picture is detailed and very well done. There is a good amount of back matter with more information about the partnerships within the garden, especially for a book targeting such a young age group- which I greatly appreciated.

I received an electronic ARC from Pajama Press through NetGalley.
Beautiful artwork blends with the text as readers learn more about flowers and how they are important to so many creatures. Each page offers a fact and then asks a question for readers to explore. Terrific to use for class discussion and brainstorming. Patkau includes paragraphs on each animal at the end which answer the questions and challenge readers to learn more.

A Flower Is a Friend by Frieda Wishinski, illustrated by Karen Patkau (Pajama Press, May 2023), highlights the ways garden creatures and garden flowers exist together. A digitally rendered flower-and-creature image on each two-page spread nicely pairs with a simple action phrase from the flower’s voice stating what they do, such as “wake to the sunlight” and “kiss a butterfly” and “drink the rain.”

Underneath ample white space on each text page, a second sentence appears. The secondary text is a question, clarifying the concept mentioned and the illustrations. One example is on the bee page (“Dust a bumblebee”); the question is “While visiting a flower like a black-eyed Susan, where does a bee collect pollen?” So each page provides the context for the creature and the specific flower pictured, as well as giving an educational question to prompt thinking as the student read and rereads the book.

The illustrations are macro images of flowers, and the whole book has a friendly, approachable feel. The nice balance of white space, text, and illustrations nicely brings the young reader into an educational picture book that reads, on the top level, as a friendly story of flowers and creatures. End matter pages give more details on the dynamic between flowers and the specific creatures, followed by a list of the flowers illustrated.

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book.

This is set up as a board book and it has a line per page of two things, usually a flower and an animal helping each other. Then that page asks a question. It waits until the very end to give you the answers. It tells you about ladybugs and bats and hummingbirds, and all the animals that were in the book. I thought it was a little odd at first, but it all comes together quite well. And makes for a book that would be enjoyable by kids with short attention span and by kids who want to go and learn further.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. A great picture book for kids to explain that flowers aren't just pretty things to look at but also shade, food, and many other things to wild creatures.

Thank you Netgalley and Pajama Press for access to this arc.

What a lovely and educational book. The illustrations are gorgeous while showing how animals help protect and cultivate flowers and in return are nurtured by the flowers. Each picture has a simple question about the relationship shown. The answers are given at the end thus allowing time for readers to think and guess the symbiotic importance. This is a great way for everyone to learn and also fun for readers to spot the animals. B

What an insightful and educational book when it comes to the value of the flowers that grow around us. What exactly do they do?

Even though to the human eye they just are stationary where they are planted, to the bumblebee, frog, hummingbird, butterfly, ladybug, and many more creatures they are very meaningful, necessary and very important.

The book highlights the many ways that flowers care for those around them and the illustrations are lovely. They capture close up and colourful images of both the flower and the creatures that they serve.

The author has provided more in-depth information about the symbiotic relationships within the garden ecosystem, including the ways these garden creatures are friends to flowers in return. I love the book and highly recommend it.

This beautiful picture book repeatedly asks the reader questions about the relationship between pollinators or other animals and the plants in their habitat. It explores the idea of symbiosis and reminds readers of the interconnectedness between animals and plants in an ecosystem. The illustrations are interesting and nice to look at. The text is relatively simple and leaves lots of opportunities for readers to question and think about what they are seeing and reading. While I wasn't sold at first on the slow reveal of information, I also appreciated that the book gave readers a lot of time to digest and question what they were taking in. By not answering questions until the end, it also gave readers a look at how non-fiction texts work and that there are tools at the end to help you understand what you read or lead you in the right direction to continue your investigation. I could definitely see myself using this book to launch an inquiry on habitats in my grade 4 science classroom. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review this book.

A Flower is a Friend has stunning illustrations of flowers, as well as some of their animal and insect friends. It leads each page with a statement about flowers, then a question at the bottom about how that friend may rely on the flower. At the end of the book is an area where the answer to those questions may be answered.