Graduation Day - Hardcover

Piotr Parda has illustrated more than thirty books. His artwork includes drawing, painting, sculpture, and moving images. He is the illustrator of The Gentleman Bat. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

K-Gr 3—This surreal wordless tale opens with a bleak cityscape; in the center square, there is a run-down school with a banner reading "Graduation Day." Peering out contentedly is a small child with brown skin, huge brown eyes, and glasses. On the next page, a group of bullies blow a spitball toward the bespectacled youth. Briefly discomfited, she peers down at the object that hit her, then tucks it into a pocket. After a collegial-looking ceremony, the other graduates are collected by happy families, and the bullied child is happily alone in the empty school. She visits her locker and, with a smile, pulls a sunflower seed out of her pocket to add to a huge jar full of identical seeds—presumably the bullying has been going on for some time. The bullies see the seeds only as weapons, but the child, leaving the school with finality, plants all the seeds in the cracks of the schoolyard. In a beautiful sequence that introduces the first bright colors into the bland world, the seeds begin to sprout until the square is awash with vibrant sunflowers. In the final spread, the school is nearly submerged and flowers escape into the rest of the city. There are still cracks, but the city looks revived. VERDICT The striking watercolor and ink illustrations are well executed, but close inspection creates more questions than answers, making this a supplemental purchase.—Anna Haase Krueger, Ramsey County Library, MN