The Seeds of Friendship

It must be tremendously hard for children who have lived their lives in a country full of colour and warmth to find themselves in a high-rise flat in the middle of a dull grey city.  So it is for Adam.  He loves his flat high in the sky, but when he looks out, all he sees is other tower blocks, all similar to his own.  His parents tell him stories of his homeland and in particular of all the animals there, and he draws wonderful pictures of elephants and lions and exotic birds.  When he sees snow for the first time, he is amazed and when he goes out to see what it is all about, he meets other children from the estate.  Together they make snow animal sculptures, and Adam begins to make friends.  At his new school, he finds a small garden, and an understanding teacher gives him seeds to take home and grow.  He and his mum plant their garden in a window box, and this is the start of making the whole estate glow with colour and light.  The children work together on every piece of land they can find, together with old baths, pots and tin cans that are soon overflowing with colour.  Adam’s seeds are ‘seeds of friendship’ and these seeds will come back and back over the seasons.  Foreman’s illustrations are, as always, an absolute delight, full of glowing warmth and colour that gradually, bit by bit, brightens Adam’s grey world.  A sensitive book with true understanding of what it must be like to find oneself in a strange place.