Amidst tall concrete structures of a modern town, a gardener fails to use her favourite tools: trowel and fork. Buildings everywhere, their roofs poking the clouds, cars blocking roads and people hurrying past. Sadly, the young gardener looks around the cracks in the pavement and the broken flowerpot. She finds the scenery drab and lacking in cheer. She shoves the garden tools away and brings out seeds from her pocket. She sprinkles the seeds along the roadside, near the bench in the discarded flowerpot and cracks in the pavement. People got angry but these seeds were smiles for her. When the trees grew and flowers sprouted, people loved them. ‘Open your arms, Mother Nature, give me a hug!’ People were no longer angry or grumpy; they were speaking about fruits, leaves and buds. They smiled at each other. The young gardener’s job was done and she moved on to the next town with many seeds for smiles in her pocket.
A beautiful idea woven into an imaginative plot. The simple story conveys a wealth of meaning, fostering love for Nature and gardening as an essential need to enliven the monotony of concrete buildings. Adorably, flowers are compared to smiles and planted flowers blossom into smiles on the faces of everyone, hence the seeds for smiles.
Originally this story comes from a Turkish tale titled Gülücük Tohumları, translated by Kaplangi who retains a simple flow of the text suitable to reach out to the young reader and expresses transparently about the importance of natural elements in life. Connecting flowers to smiles is not only picturesque but also profound and metaphorically rich in implication. In the same light, the artwork with simple imagery and stylization lends meaning to the storyline. The illustrations are neither cluttered nor scarce, just proportionately appropriate for a simple idea that will have immense appeal for young readers.