From the moment I saw the cover of Planting Sunshine (due Feb 2026, read via an online reader) it had really gotten under my skin. At first, I loved it; then I didn’t; then I felt it and hoped I would like the story beyond it. For sure this image gives one an emotional response. And to say that Andrée Poulin’s text also gives an emotional response, is an understatement. 
They combine poetry, graphic novel formats and novels, with contemporary events. The “Why” of a child blooms into ways that make war understandable and how not to be helpless in a seemingly helpless situation. Yet, of course, there is no real rhyme or reason to war. We follow the emotional journey of our main character from the hours before he learns of the war, to learning of the war (outside his country, and alluded to be the Ukraine), to his nightmares, his fights with friends, and the people who become his anchors. 
The characters are realistic: The frustrated father who has no answers and wishes he did, the neighbor who grew up in the country before the war, the friends who are somewhat clueless and seemingly heartless to the struggles, and our narrator’s reactions. 
Enzo Lord Mariano created amazing art that intertwined with the prose poetry. Also, some of the poems are wordless and just images, but perhaps they speak the loudest. Colors and details are minimal, but get the job done. Illustrations should be savored, do not rush through the story/the text, just take the time to walk through less than two months of one person’s life, one person coming of age, their losing a little bit of their innocence. The combinations on the page make me just feel a big WOW that’s hard, sad, raw, but also beautiful and is a message. 
I probably shouldn’t have said all the above, but just should have said READ IT!!!!!!!! I don’t think you’ll regret it. If you do purchase for a child, please read first to know your reader as some images and concepts/content might not be suitable for sensitive readers/young children. An author afterwards completes the package.