AVA'S POPPY

This trite and simplistic tale of friendship and the life cycle offers little that is new.

A translation of the German Lisa’s Mohnblume, in this version a small girl named Ava asks a poppy growing in a field in front of her house to be her friend. The poppy does not respond, of course, but red-haired Ava continues to visit “her” red poppy. She is “always there” for her friend, which she protects from cold wind, drought and heavy rain. But (surprise!), the poppy nevertheless loses its petals, shrivels up and dies. The grieving Ava buries the pod and surrounds its grave with a memorial circle of stones. As snow falls, Ava continues to mourn her flower friend, but she realizes that it could not have survived the cold. In spring she is delighted to find a “tender little plant” reaching up to the sky. The images are large, mainly red and green, and Ava’s mouth is a single line that curves up and down, depending on her feelings. To Be Like the Sun, by Susan Marie Swanson and illustrated by Margaret Chodos-Irvine (2008), covers much the same territory with far greater art.

Bury this one.