A DAISY IS A DAISY

The opening spread is breathtakingly lovely: “Flora, Florica, Kukka, Lore, Hana and Zvetana mean flower.” Scattered over these two pages are monotype, collage and line-drawing images of flowers, stems and floral parts, as well as little notes: “Hana—Japanese girl’s name”; “Lore—Basque girl’s name.” With the information that Gul is a Turkish girl’s name that means rose is an exquisite line drawing of a rose on its side with the face of a small girl appearing from the petals. She’s asleep. Other versions of the name Rose are noted in other languages, like Rhodanthe in Greek. Girassol means sunflower in Portuguese, and a girl with a sunflower face rides a bicycle. Csilla means bluebell in Hungarian, and the tiny face of a red-haired girl peers from a bluebell blossom against a background of blue stars. Many girls, such as Kamilka (chamomile), wear parts of their flowers as hat, skirt or cloak. Gelsomina in Italian and Yasmina in Arabic both mean jasmine, and she wears fairy wings; Erika (heather in German) sprouts heather blossoms from her hands and hair and pelvis. Precious in the very best sense of the word, these sophisticated, delicate images repay repeated examination, as well as sending the sweet message that girls are thought as beautiful as flowers all over the world. (Picture book. 4-8)