Christina Dendy

There is so much to unpack in the picturebook that quite frankly, I’m not sure where to begin. On the surface, it’s an amazing story of a young girl who is growing her garden and wants nothing but the best in it. She carefully selects each seed, cultivates each bulb and nurtures every flower; all the while ensuring that the garden is free of weeds and pests. What does she do with the unwanted elements? She throws them over a wall she is carefully constructing. At the beginning, the garden attracts all matter of insects and people–it is a beautiful site to behold!

As the story progresses, and we get below the surface, we see that the girl has started taking things a bit to the extreme. The garden is over cultivated, the seeds are over selected–the wall becomes higher and more things are thrown to the other side.

Shades of OCD, unresolved trauma, perfectionism and an inability to see beauty in one’s self abound in this simple story. Eventually, we learn what is growing on the other side of the wall–and the reveal, illustrated by Rewse is spectacular. It makes one wonder what happens to all the parts of ourselves we throw over the wall.… (altro)