Sunflower Seeds

K-Gr 3–A class project turns into a longform exercise in mindfulness and appreciation for the natural world in this gentle slice-of-life tale. Toward the end of the school year, a kindergarten teacher reads to her class about a farmer growing sunflowers. Inspired, the children each plant three sunflower seeds, which sprout one by one. After the last day of school, the story follows a single child, who takes his seeds home and nurtures them all summer, experiencing the full life cycle of the plant. Finally, all the children return to school, excited to expand and deepen their botanical knowledge. Heck fills her work with a healthy reverence for the power of learning. She strikes a perfect balance in her storytelling between small, personal moments and pedagogical content, cannily interweaving them into an irresistible narrative. The illustrations are as lovingly handcrafted as the classroom and curriculum they depict; bright oil paintings on brown paper imbue the visual landscape of the book alternately with a soothing air of community and a bright, radiant energy. Neatly mirroring the book’s celebration of hands-on engagement with nature, the heavy impasto application of Heck’s thick brushstrokes grants characters and environments a rough charm. In between, she strategically leaves stretches of paper open, the negative space serving as walls, tables, and in one meditative moment, a deer.