Book Review: The Boy who Grew Flowers

I sell Barefoot Books, a collection of beautifully illustrated children’s books which celebrate art and story and and aim to open young hearts and minds. One of my own kids’ favourite books from this publisher is ‘The Boy who grew flowers’, written by Jen Wojtowicz and lovingly illustrated by Steve Adams. This is a story of a shy boy, Rink Bowagon, who lives at the top of Lonesome Mountain with his family who doesn’t want people to know that each and every full moon, he sprouts sweet-smelling flowers all over his body, for fear that he will be teased. So Rink keeps to himself and the other children stay away from him. That is, until one day a girl called Angelina Quiz comes to his school. She is always surrounded by friends yet ignores the unkind teasing of Rink by the other children. But Angelina has a secret of her own, and Rink is the only one with the imagination and compassion to help her. At heart, this is a tender story of loneliness, the healing power of friendship and how being different is not such a bad thing. Go to my Barefoot Books marketplace and type ‘The boy who grew flowers’ into the search engine on the top right side to buy this wonderful book or browse Barefoot’s huge, inspiring selection.

‘When Angelina heard a knock at the door,

her heart flipped. There stood Rink, with a

bunch of wild pink roses in his left hand and

a pair of snakeskin slippers in his right.’