Tic Toc review

Tic Toc
December 17, 2010

Red in the Flower Bed by Andrea Nepa
by Leslie Wright

Red in the Flower Bed is a insightful and whimsical children’s book creating a fun read with the singsong type of rhyme that makes for an engaging reading process. Andrea Nepa has risen to the challenge of making the confusing and unsettling process of adoption into a story of search and discovery. In a more difficult setting where the adoption is interracial, she has found just the perfect way to help an child feel comfortable in a new place surrounded with differences. This would be insightful with any adoption and not limited to interracial, I believe there is always a bit of that feeling, of not belonging, and this book, takes that difference and shows how all parts make a whole. The story, beginning with the seed being directed and finding just the best and most special place to grow, shows a love and a welcoming that is difficult to miss. The beauty of the new color coming up in a bed full of other colors all different and unique blending into a rainbow shows how each entity is of itself unique and yet a part of the whole, creating a family. I felt the book had a light and genuine touch, making a difficult theme beautiful. You will be charmed by the prose, and the beauty of the concept is well illustrated with beautiful colors and themes, sure to capture the imagination.