Because of the cover of A Way with Wild Things I was not sure about that little girl. Was she going to be funny? Smart? Something else? It looked like it could be fun, but how was the “wild” going to be presented? I quickly learned that this was a story about having a knack with nature, a story about a young girl who is a little anxious in the “real world” and finally how she might have been a wallflower once, but now she is a wildflower!
Poppy loves nature and can be found carrying on conversations with her wildlife friends. But she is also terribly uncomfortable with people. At parties she turns into flowers, landscapes, trees and any other background she can find. It is not until a very special birthday party and a special bug friend help Poppy come out of her shell. And then not only her family but she sees how much of a wildflower she is.
There are the most lovely, funny and sweet illustrations by Sara Palacios. There is also a fun hide-and-seek aspect of trying to find Poppy as she blends into the backgrounds. The poetic text of Larissa Theule is complimented by bold colors and busy pages. The story itself is actually more like “early Poppy” therefore, the two seem to clash at first, but also foreshadow things to come.
This a cute book. Not an OMG THE BEST BOOK EVER, but a book that I would read again, recommend highly to both kids, parents, teachers and the stranger on the street.