Seed Magic

How can Rose bring her dreams of a colorful garden full of red and yellow and blue flowers to life in a barren, gray city?

Crazy old Birdman sits in his wheelchair all day, feeding seeds to the pigeons. He says pigeons are beautiful, but Rose thinks pigeons are dirty and gray, like the dirty, gray city. She dreams of gardens like the ones she sees in her library books, filled with blue lupines, red geraniums, and yellow sunflowers.

So Birdman fills Rose's hands with seeds black as tar and slick as oil, seeds that he says are magic. Rose plants those seeds outside her window and waits. Soon, just as Birdman promised, a singing garden appears before her eyes—a flurry of red and yellow and blue, drawn to Rose's window by seed magic.

Jane Buchanan's rhythmic prose and Charlotte Riley-Webb's vibrant and striking illustrations bring to life a story of community, connection, hope, and unexpected beauty."With a minimum of words, characters become real, and the grimy city becomes a place of hope. Strong acrylic colors and loose, broad brushstrokes reverberate with the rhythm and hope heard in the text. Together with brevity of words and motion and vibrancy of rhythm and color, the text and paintings create an unexpected joie de vivre. This is a must-buy for all libraries."—School Library JournalJane Buchanan holds degrees from Greenfield Community College, Simmons College, and Vermont College. The author of many picture books and novels for children, she lives in western Massachusetts, where she works at her hometown library.

An Atlanta native, Charlotte Riley-Webb earned a BFA from The Cleveland Institute of Art. Her paintings have appeared in more than twenty-five major exhibitions worldwide and are included in numerous private, business, and corporate collections. She has also taught art to adults and children and illustrated several children's books.