A little girl dressed in a red hoodie walks through black-and-white city streets with her father, who is talking incessantly on his cell phone for most of their walk. He doesn’t see what his daughter sees along the way—small touches of color in the occasional flowers that grow up through sidewalk cracks or by the foundations of buildings. She picks them as they walk. Once she has a nice bouquet of subtly colored blossoms, she leaves them, one by one, where they are needed: next to a dead bird, a sleeping homeless man, a dog on a leash. As a result of her small acts of kindness, we see her world begin to fill with color. Once she gets home, everything is in color. She even has a few flowers remaining to give her mother and brothers. Simple yet sophisticated, this is a story that will stay with the reader long after the book is closed. (Ages 4–10)

A little girl in a red jacket goes walking with her father in their urban environment. While he is consistently distracted on his cell phone, she collects wildflowers from unlikely places, such as where sidewalk squares meet or in the crack between the sidewalk and a building, and leaves some in equally unlikely places, such as on a dead bird or in a dog's collar. The wordless story is revealed in panels of various sizes, beginning in black and white with more and more color appearing until the book is full color by their arrival home, when she has flowers for mom and siblings.

Governor General's Literacy Award for Children's Illustrated Books, Winner of the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award, Winner of the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award, Winner of the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award for Book Illustration, A New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year, A Horn Book Fanfare Selection, A Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book of the Year, An ALSC Notable Children's Book, A School Library Journal Best Picture Book of the Year, A New York Public Library Best 100 Books for Reading and Sharing, A Cybils Fiction Picture Book Award Winner, A Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the Year 2016, 2016 USBBY Outstanding International Books.

Author lives in Toronto. Illustrator lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Canada. Originally published in Toronto, Canada by Groundwood in 2015.

Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Illustrated Book

A New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year

In this wordless picture book, a little girl collects wildflowers while her distracted father pays her little attention. Each flower becomes a gift, and whether the gift is noticed or ignored, both giver and recipient are transformed by their encounter.

“Written” by award-winning poet JonArno Lawson and brought to life by illustrator Sydney Smith, Sidewalk Flowers is an ode to the importance of small things, small people and small gestures.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7

Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.