Flower Girl Butterflies ANNOTATION
Sarah is both excited and nervous about being the flower girl in her aunt's wedding.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Sarah is a flower girl in Aunt Robin's wedding! She gets to wear a swirly, twirly dress and carry a basketful of flowers. How exciting!
And scary.
What if she trips?
What if she drops her basket?
What if she throws the flowers all wrong?
Everyone will be watching.
Sarah doesn't want to let Aunt Robin down, but she gets butterflies in her tummy just thinking about it.
About the Author:
Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard is the author of several books that celebrate her extended family. The real Lulu is the author's great-aunt. Born in 1870, Lulu was an elementary school teacher for almost fifty years. She also rolled bandages for the Red Cross, worked a swing shift during World War II, learned to create books in Braille, and studied millinery, drafting, ceramics, Spanish, rug-hooking, and leather and metal tooling, and voted faithfully in all local elections. "Was Lulu your grandma?" children often ask the author. "Well, sure," replies Mrs. Howard. "Lulu was everybody's grandma." Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
FROM THE CRITICS
School Library Journal
PreS-Gr 2-All of the excitement and anxiety of a wedding day are captured in this charming picture book. When young Sarah is asked to be a flower girl in her Aunt Robin's wedding, the child is consumed with doubts. She worries that she will forget to throw her flowers. She's nervous about tripping in front of everyone, getting sick, or ruining her new dress. With the loving reassurance of her African-American family, she calms her fears enough to walk down the aisle. After all, she has to be a "big girl" role model for the little ring bearer. This book is a wonderful celebration of family as the grandmothers and several uncles and cousins come to spend the night before the wedding at Sarah's house. Sarah's big moment is a perfect splash of pink background and scattered pink petals with the child's dark skin gleaming against her white flower-girl dress. The lovely bride, in a frothy white gown, follows. The collage textures added to the watercolor and colored-pencil illustrations give the book a tactile look. A warm, family-oriented story that children will love.-Janet M. Bair, Trumbull Library, CT Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Sarah's aunt is getting married in this familiar story of a flower girl's performance anxiety; the cover depicting a beaming Sarah foreshadows a happy ending. The first page of text expresses the momentousness of the invitation to be in the wedding party, accompanied by a close-up of Sarah's clearly apprehensive little face. All the wedding preparations, up to and including Sarah's ultimately triumphant trip down the aisle, are artfully and accurately described, which will also make the story enjoyable as a kind of primer on wedding traditions and expectations. Kromer's expressive illustrations make effective use of watercolor, colored pencil, and collage to extend the text and animate the recognizable characters in this warm African-American family drama. One false note is a cloying greeting card moment, in Sarah's dreams, showing bride and groom, astride white stallion accompanied by doves, flying off together into the heavens. But overall the effervescent, humorous quality of the illustrations successfully matches the warm mood of the festivities. (Picture book. 3-7)
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