Bloom

Featured in The Guardian as one of the best picture books, and in The Sunday Times as children’s book of the week. There was once a beautiful flower and a little girl who loved it. She talked to it every morning on her way to school.

The owner of the flower shouted at her. The next day, the flower did not open. The angry man didn’t understand.

He tried watering it. He tried giving it shade and he tried talking to it. He told it how wonderful he was, how important his job was and how lonely he felt.

But it still refused to open. So, he asked the little girl. “Why don’t you tell it how wonderful it is and how much you love it?” she said.

As he did so, his own heart filled with love. And the flower bloomed.