Sydney Smith’s illustrations first came to my attention in Arno Lawson’s wordless picture book Footpath Flowers (aka Sidewalk Flowers). It is a very special thing to find a silent picture book that works so seamlessly. Sydney Smith and Jon Arno Lawson are both Canadian, Jon Lawson an award winning poet while Sydney Smith has won many awards for his different books such as Town is by the Sea, Small in the City and I Talk like a River, all of which I will review at another time.  

For a book with no words, this book manages to say a multitude. In the story the observant child notices a dead bird, a tramp, and a dog, and leaves flowers as a gift. The father is preoccupied and fails to notice the child’s interaction with people and the environment. The child’s loving interaction with her mother by leaving flowers in her hair is almost invisible.

The absence of words and even of the child’s name adds to the power of the story. The girl’s emotions are in her actions rather than in her expressions. JonArno says the actions of the child were based on watching his own daughter. “She wasn’t doing it for praise, she was just doing it” (Horn Book interview with Editor Roger Sutton). The understated quality of the book comes from this understanding as well as the beautiful art which includes endpapers of flowers and birds.

Colour is cleverly used in this book. Initially the only touches of colour are the flowers and the child’s red coat in an otherwise black and white landscape. Gradually colour appears in a fruit stand, yellow taxis, bunches of flowers in crevices, a woman’s patterned dress, glass bottles on a shelf. The beautifully detailed illustrations support the non-verbal text which leaves a powerful message in its wake.