book cover
English Cymraeg

The Concrete Garden

by Bob Graham

Interest age: 4 to 5
Reading age: 7+

Published by Walker Books, 2023

  • Picture books

About this book

Children spill out from the tower block after a long winter, and Amanda brings chalks. She draws a green and blue shape, then others add a pink mushroom, orange flowers, a giant snail. More and more children join in to create a beautiful picture on the concrete. And even though Luke’s dog smudges the flowers, the art of the concrete garden brings colour to everyone’s lives.

This deceptively simple picture book says a lot with very little text. There is an inclusive variety of people depicted, in a very mundane, familiar urban setting, which is uplifted by colour. The children enjoy adding to each other’s drawings, and forming one large piece of art. The whole community takes great joy from it, smudges and all. There are lively discussions to be had about creativity and teamwork and the importance of art in our lives. Hopefully, this should inspire young readers to get out their chalks or pencils too. A lovely book to share or to read aloud to a class.

About the author

Robert Donald Graham, better known as Bob Graham, is an Australian author and illustrator of picture books, primarily for very young children.

Graham won the 2002 Kate Greenaway Medal from the British librarians, recognising the year's best-illustrated children's book published in the UK, for the picture book Jethro Byrd, Fairy Child, which he both wrote and illustrated. (He donated the £5000 cash prize to refugees.) He also won a 2000 Smarties Prize, ages category 0–5 years, for Max. For his contribution as a children's illustrator, Graham was Australia nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2012.

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