Grandma's Purple Flowers

This is from the 'Blogging Grace' chapter in my book PLAY WIT ME NANA.

After our library visit we went back to my house and sat on the leather couch to read. Hmmm…. This one looks good, Kenz, “Grandma’s Purple Flowers”.

After we got into it a few pages, Kenzie commented on the art, “I like how she makes the trees, Nana.”

The art is beautiful and so is the poetic story about a black girl, possibly around ten years old, who runs through the colorful park to visit her grandmother. She goes to visit her gray haired grandma “all the time” through the seasons.

In the summer she picks some purple flowers and her grandma puts them in a little vase on the table, next to a framed picture of her granddaughter when she was little. “Later we eat soft corn muffins, so sweet and yummy.”

Then in autumn she and Grandma rake the leaves in the garden. “Why do leaves have to fall and die?” the little girl asks her grandma. "Everything has it’s time, Grandma tells me.”

In the winter the little girl "with almost frozen fingers’ knocks on the Grandma's door." It takes a long time for the Grandma to come to the door. “Grandma, can we bake corn muffins?” "No baby,” she says softly."

A few pages later the Grandma dies! “Grandma passed away that night. When Momma tells me the next morning, I cry and cry.”

Writing this now, I am holding back tears, but when I read the book to Kenz, I was sobbing and Kenz was tearing up a little, too. I had not previewed the book and was very surprised that the Grandma died!

Anyway, through the winter, the little girl stays sad, then in the springtime she runs through the park and over to the house where Grandma used to live.

The story reads, “A leaf circles to the ground in back of Grandma’s house where we used to plant collard greens and okra. When I look closely, I see tiny purple flowers shooting up from the ground, stretching to the sky.”

On this page Kenz and I looked up at each other. “Wow, the grandma planted the flowers from the vase in the ground,” I tell her.

The last page of the book reads…”Whenever I see purple flowers now, I think of Grandma. I feel her big hug, and I smile wide---like the Mississippi River.”

Great book, Adjoa J. Burrowers and wonderful illustrations!

Adjoa J. Burrowes has a website full of goodies. Check it out.

http://www.adjoaburrowes.com/