Picture Book Review – Can You Hear the Plants Speak?
CAN YOU HEAR THE PLANTS SPEAK?
Written by Nicholas Hummingbird with Julia Wasson
Illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight
(HarperCollins BYR; $19.99, Ages 4-8)
Can You Hear the Plants Speak? written by Nicholas Hummingbird with Julia Wasson and illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight is a lyrical picture book worth putting on your radar. After finishing it I immediately headed into my backyard to contemplate what I’d just read with a heightened appreciation of the often overlooked nature outside my doors. I hope that children will have the same experience; not just thinking about the stunning beauty of all the flowers and plants but the miracle of their survival throughout time.
What works so well in this memoir is how the voice of the storyteller takes readers back to his youth to show how nature has always been tightly woven into the everyday life of Native Americans. We’re pulled into the story when invited to come along on a walk. From an early age, the child learns from his great-grandparents, “Our people believe spirit lives in everything.” The influence of his elders and ancestors plays an important role in his life.
Goodnight’s illustrations serenely convey the respect and appreciation of every encounter. “We listened as our plant relatives spoke.” While I’ve been known to talk to my plants, I’ve never considered listening to them so these words deeply touched me.
When the main character describes how his ancestral land was “flattened to concrete” by those more interested in profit than plants and spirit, I grew angry. I imagined his hurt. The art shows how cities replaced countryside, decimating what stood in their way. The stark reality of how damaging this was to nature is powerfully conveyed in a four-word spread where an uprooted plant lay torn from the earth. “The land was silenced.” A gut punch.
As the boy becomes a man, he still feels the loss profoundly. Who can he listen to? But a sprout emerging from concrete offers hope. “Don’t give up,” it says to him. He listens. And plants. And gives back to the land he loves. The land that always provided for his relatives would now provide for his new family. He teaches his son, Tuhui, the importance of continuing to listen to what the plants tell him. Readers are then asked to listen. “Can you hear it?”
This beautifully written and illustrated book provides a subtle yet meaningful message that lets children know we are all the stewards of our world, and that we should not take our flora and fauna for granted. Respecting nature and our “plant relatives” is at the heart of this recommended read. Two pages of backmatter round out the book including suggestions on what young readers can do to help preserve the flora and flora that surround them.
