Sweet Pea Summer by Hazel Mitchell

  A small child is sent to spend the summer with their grandparents, while their mother is recovering from an illness in the hospital. They have medium-length brown hair and are wearing patchwork shorts, flared wide like a skirt. Their gender is never mentioned, but the publisher description uses female pronouns.

At first she is shy and lonely without her parents. Bored and unhappy, she cautiously joins her grandfather in his expansive backyard garden and quickly becomes interested in the sweet peas. It's a frustrating interest, since the buds keep dying and they require a lot of delicate care, but after a lot of work she figures out what's wrong and gets a full crop of beautiful blue flowers, just in time to win a prize at the flower show.

The sweet illustrations and story have a distinctly British flair, at least to my mind, and the afterword with more information on sweet peas enforces this. The unnamed child and her family present as white, but there are some more diverse people in their town.

Although the ending is a little pat, this is a comforting story for children waiting through the illness of a parent and those interested in gardens and growing things.

Verdict: An additional choice, of most interest if you live in a suburban or rural area with a lot of gardens.

ISBN: 9781536210347; Published April 2021 by Candlewick; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library