Written during COVID times with clues in the illustrations to reflect this, The Concrete Garden by Bob Graham, celebrates the profound ripple effect one child’s creative actions can have on their community and further afield. After being inside for an extended period, an apartment block filled with children from diverse backgrounds, comes to life as the children transform the front of their dreary building, bringing it to life with spectacular colour. This story deftly and joyfully captures the power of creativity. It also illustrates the beauty that comes with the freedom of children using their imaginations and having agency over a collaborative creation, free from judgement and adult supervision or intervention.
The uplifting story begins with Amanda (all of the characters, including the dog is named allowing the reader to connect with each of them) and her Mum leaving their apartment with a box of crayons. Amanda creates a design which causes her neighbours to stop, ponder and take in her artwork. Other children are inspired to add to Amanda’s drawing, they delight in contributing and adding their own designs, reflecting varied interests and knowledge. Interestingly, most children choose to draw natural elements and the result is a vibrant, eye catching, ephemeral artwork. This “exotic garden” is admired and proves to be a source of comfort to a young girl who takes a photo of it and sends it to her Mum in Isfahan, Iran. This sees the concrete garden travel far and wide from screen to screen around the world and eventually to screens belonging to residents in the apartment.
This creation is loved for days until the rain washes it away. The children’s reactions to this are beautiful, they see opportunity not loss. Once again, their imaginations that know no bounds take flight and joy is found when the children come together to create and play.
All of Bob Graham’s books have so much of the story told in the glorious illustrations and this title is no exception, one of the many reasons it is such a joy to revisit. The illustrations capture the inception of the concrete garden, its evolution and the gorgeous, completed piece, as well as the ways it unites a community, the touching moments of connection, friendship and mishaps with humour.