Read this book and you will see flowers with quite different eyes. That’s its intention, as laid out in the introduction, and one it achieves quite brilliantly. Seventeen flowers are featured, most familiar to us all (dandelion, thistle, poppy, marigold), full colour, full page illustrations opposite a page of text. The text gives us size and appearance, where the plant grows, but also includes bits of history and folklore plus information on medicinal properties and how the plant has been used to heal over the centuries. Fascinating stuff, and you get a strong sense of the author’s expertise and enthusiasm. The illustrations are just as special, stylized, folk-art inspired images of the flowers with figures or birds and insects. Beautiful and mind-expanding.
Flower Power: The Magic of Nature's Healers Synopsis
Olaf Hajek's fantastical and mesmerising art is familiar to many adults. Now young readers can enjoy his work while learning about the fascinating health benefits of flowers they encounter every day.
Hajek's paintings spring to life, populated by insects, birds, fruit, and fairytales that illustrate the drama of the natural world. Accompanying each painting are engaging texts that explore various cultural and medicinal aspects of the flowers as well as their importance to artists, writers, and healers.
As they learn how iris roots were used to alleviate teething pain in babies and how poppy plants led to the invention of the salt shaker, kids will also get to know a garden's worth of blooms-from wild roses to carnations and peonies to marigolds. Kids will look at flowers in a whole new light and will delight in this beautiful keepsake of botanical illustrations by a celebrated artist.
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