I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. A cute book about realizing that sometimes a bird will leave for the season but will be back next year.

Thank you to NetGalley for a digital copy of this new picture book.

Emma's Sunflower is a beautiful read all about seasons and the renewal of life. Even though things may go away, they may not be lost forever.

The title has fantastic illustrations that are captivating! This would be perfect for our garden story time program, I'll recommend this to a coworker.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Pretty cute kids book for sure, not sure if it's something i would buy, but a very cute story even so :)

This is a great story for young children that celebrates nature along with colors, numbers, and seasons. The illustrations are very colorful and the details are well done. I voluntarily reviewed an advance readers copy of this book.

Emma’s Sunflower is a delightful little story for children, about a little girl called Emma who is watching her garden, and she ends up having a lovely surprise in it for her birthday. The graphics in the book are gorgeous and bright. Little ones will learn all about the seasons, counting, nature and animals in this cute book. My daughter especially liked the counting and the surprise.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much Purple Butterfly Press and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

This was such a visual story, it was really sweet and shows the magic in a child’s heart. Emma watched in awe at her birds that came to eat her seeds, but when they are gone she is sad.

It was such a pure sweet simple story, Little Emma had named her birds and enjoyed seeing them everyday, then as crows made things worse and weather kept them hidden away she didn’t know if she’d see her favourite birds again.

I really loved that a lot of the story was visual it was telling you the story through the illustrations, some of it obviously had writing but some were just illustrations and it worked it added to it and made it so sweet.

This is a great book for starter readers, it even had certain words stand out in different colours. It teaches of the seasons, of flowers growing, of different birds. It’s really creative and a really great book for young children.

A cute and fun picture book about a little girl who loves all things outdoors, especially a little family of birds and all their antics.

Children will love the simple story and have fun seeking out all the things in each illustrations [there is an activity guide at the end that adds to the fun] that are bright, colorful, and fun.

Really well done.

Thank you to NetGalley, Phillipa Warden, Grace Ward - Illustrator, and Purple Butterfly Press for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kat Biggie Press for the digital ARC of this publication.

The illustrations in this one are so pretty! A sweet story about Emma and her bird feeder. Talks about the different things that happen as the seasons change and in the end there is a special surprise for Emma.

Cute story, great illustrations, something educational about the world around us and a happy ending! Perfect for young children.

My first reaction to the book was the vibrant illustrations, which drew me into the story. The title page consisted of a bright yellow sunflower, whose features were created out of ladybugs, who does not ladybugs? I enjoyed the way Grace Ward used the illustrations to tell a story, and Phillipa Warden"s words enhanced the same portion "the ground beneath the apple tree" brings a lot of texture to the story. I love that a young reader can "read" the story to their mommy, daddy, and friends. Plus there was a lot of space for the young reader to own the story. For example, Crow was bad for taking all the seeds, this opens the discussion and children learn science and emathy. What is Crow did not accidently leave seeds. then the other birds would not have food in the spring. My favorite portions of children's literature are the character growths, flat characters have no place and the book would quickly lose its appeal.
Thank you Purple Butterfly Press, Grace Ward, Phillipa Warden, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this charming eARC.

First off, what an AMAZING cover!! Such a beautiful and eye-catching sunflower!

This is a very cute story about how sunflowers can grow just by the seeds dropped from a bird feeder/and other birds. The illustrations are beautifully done. I have sunflowers in my own yard that were not planted by me and I've always called them my mysterious sunflowers!! It was fun to read this to my nieces and nephews and have a way of explaining how my sunflowers came to be. They are so much more interested in them now and go out every day to see if there are any new ones growing.

I love that the book encourages children to be interested in plants/flowers at such a young age and shows them the fun they can have with them. This will carry on into their older years and we may be reading to future gardeners!

This children’s picture book is a delightful story about nature that happens outside of Emma’s bedroom window. It details the life cycle and seasons of the finches that visit her birdfeeder filled with sunflower seeds. In today’s world, we often forget about nature as we are so engrossed with electronic technology. I appreciate that this author is drawing children’s minds back to nature.
I am impressed that the illustrator, who is dyslexic, uses a specific font to keep from interchanging letters in the story. I am encouraged by the illustrator’s example.

The illustrations in the book are beautiful and calming, thus taking me back to my childhood when it was fun to explore nature as we didn’t have the technology of today.

I appreciate the activities at the back of the book as they encourage the children to further explore nature.

I think that any child ages toddler to early elementary would love this book! It would make a beautiful addition to any home, preschool, or elementary classroom.

We used to take my daughter on frequent nature walks. A nature walk would be a perfect activity to take your child in after reading this picture book.

I want to thank Author Phillipa Warden, Illustrator Grace Ward, Purple Butterfly Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this Advanced Reader’s Copy. This is a voluntary review, and all comments and opinions are entirely my own.

https://bonnevivantetr.wordpress.com/2022/04/12/book-review-emmas-sunflower-by-philippa-warden-illustrated-by-grace-ward/

“Emma’s Sunflower” follows the simple and entertaining story of a sunflower seed fallen to the ground as it grows through different seasons . There is also a greenwich bird family in Emma’s garden, as well as a crow that is watches over everything in the garden. We see different stages of this garden in spring, summer, autumn and winter times.
Other than the main story, the book contains many pretty illustrations and fun exercises related to the story itself at the end of the book.
Finally, thanks to the illustrator Grace Ward, the book is written in a dyslexia friendly font, which is also something I rarely encounter. Needless to say, this feature earns this book a lot of positive points.
I would give this book a 3,5/5. If you’re interested, “Emma’s Flower” will be published from Purple Butterfly Press on May 24th, 2022.

An adorable story about the turning of the seasons. The pictures are whimsical and the writing is simple enough for small children to be able to read independently. I read this with my grade 2 class and they loved it.

I absolutely loved the illustrations in this book, they are so unique and beautiful.
I also am so happy to see books written in dyslexia friendly fonts. However, I’m not sure about the actual story though and I think there’s a grammatical error in the sentence,
‘Emma loved the birds pale cloudy greys, olive greens and sunny yellows’ I think it needs an apostrophe in birds?

At first I thought the story may be about sustainability or the life of a sunflower seed, or even into exploring Corvids but it ended with the sunflower going from shoot to turning it’s head to the sun and the little birds coming back. What happened to the crow? I think there are opportunities to add a couple of pages which would make this story great.

I loved how vibrant and colorful this book was! I am a big fan of sunflowers in general, so I was really excited to read this one.

I liked the premise of this book, but didn't understand what happened to the crow! He comes and scares away the family of greenfinches, eats all the birdseed "gets fatter and fatter and fatter" and then disappears? It just seemed like we were leading into something else but the crow just gets fat and that's that. I just think about reading this to the littles in my life and I know that they would ask where the crow went!

Overall, a cute book!

This adorable book highlights the power of speaking up and using your voice to not only enact meaningful change, but to support those you love.

I liked that the book didn't depend on the outcome of the strike to convey its message, because the reality is sometimes change does not always happen - but it is still important to speak out about injustices. I felt this book touched on that but more specifically focused on humanizing the parents and also the importance of being there for those you care about.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful illustrations help to tell a story that spans the season and is perfect for sharing. The pictures have lots of little details that you can use to interact when reading this book with a child. The bio at the is very interesting, as the font used is one specially for dyslexics making letters more stable..

My 4 year old twins and I enjoyed this sweet book. The illustrations were colorful and beautiful. Emma’s bird feeder reminded my daughters of their own bird feeder in the backyard. Even though the crow scares off all the little birds, his scattering of seeds causes beautiful sunflowers to grow. This is a good lesson that even when things seem to be going all wrong, things can work out for the best in the end.

Thank you to Netgalley and Purple Butterfly Press for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My kids and I really liked this one! It has beautiful illustrations and takes you through a sunflower and a bird's journey through the seasons. My kids love to watch our garden grow, so this is a wonderful companion for that process, particularly the role of other animals and insects. This is a great one to get kids fascinated with nature.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A sweet tale of a girl and the wild birds she watches. I felt the story could have been a little more cohesive at times. There were lots of details that could be discussed with your young reader, and that is typically what I most look for in picture books.

This is a charming book about a little girl named Emma who observes the beauty and wonderment of Mother Nature through her window. She has a bird feeder in her garden which she has packed full of sunflower seeds. An adorable family of greenfinches happily jostle around to feed and fill up their tummies. A mean black crow has been watching and he swoops down demanding all the seeds for himself sending the startled greenfinches flying. Emma rushes out to shoo the intruder away but her attempt fails. Each time the crow pecks at the feeder random seeds fall to the ground and snuggle into the soil. The greenfinches are banished by the crow but he remains at the feeder pecking away getting fatter and fatter and FATTER.

Autumn progresses into Winter and Winter evolves into Spring. The new season arrives with beautiful April showers and warm sunlight which causes the sunflower seeds to sprout. Fast forward to July ( Summer season ) when Emma celebrates her birthday. On the morning of her long awaited day something catches her eye, something very special. It's big and round and bright sunny yellow with ladybugs positioned to form a smile on it's face just for Emma. It's the best birthday present ever! Can you guess what it might be?
Another birthday surprise is that her surprise attracts the adorable greenfinch family back to Emma's garden.

This sweet simple story with it's lovely illustrations allows the reader to experience the marvel of the four seasons and the miracle of seeds germinating, growing, and finally bursting forth into blossom. I love the dyslexic friendly font included and the activities provided at the end of the book with a link to the author's website to access even more activities. I highly recommend this book.