Beautiful Little Flowers: The Little Flower Book Review

I received a free copy of The Little Flower: A Parable about St. Therese’ in order to review the book.  All opinions are my own!

Do you remember being young, and wanting to do something that you could not do because you “weren’t big enough”? Whether it’s your three-year-old who wants to use a jackhammer or your tween that wants a cell phone, we find ourselves telling our children, “when you’re older”.  Most children have heard this from their parents.  Most children would rather not hear it.

St. Therese’ didn’t want to hear it either.

The Little Flower: A Parable about St. Therese’ is an absolute beautiful reminder of how we all make the world radiant.  Whether we are feeding the poor in a third world country, or reaching out to a classmate that feels excluded, when we act out of love, we glorify the Lord.

I LOVE this book for so many reasons, but I will condense them into three!

3 Reasons Why I LOVE The Little Flower: A Parable of St. Therese’:

1. Children can relate to the main character.

   St. Therese’, as a young girl, wants to do things her big sisters and older people do in order to show how much they love God. Therese’ wants to do lots of things, but, unfortunately, she is just “not old enough”. Most children have had this desire and because of that they will immediately connect with the story.

2. The book is a spring board for so many discussions and activities!  

   I read The Little Flower: A Parable of St. Therese’ to three six year old girls.  Each time I read the book I asked questions like, “If you were a flower, what color would you be?” “Which page of the book is your favorite?”  “Which flower is your favorite?”.  I loved how each little girl answered the questions differently!  I then printed out out some free coloring pages of flowers.  The three young ladies picked a total different page to color.  If I had them all together, I could have asked what they liked about the other persons flowers, and discussed how each one was beautiful.  I could then have discussed how God made every little girl beautiful.  We could discuss how we are all different and we all love God in different ways.  I could go on and on!  It’s a great book that can be used to build self-esteem, nurture a young child’s faith and provide an opportunity for a parent and child to get to know one another a little better (you never know what they will say when you start asking questions)!  This book is a  great opportunity for a mom to show her daughter which flower she likes the best – and how maybe she liked a different flower when she was little.  A dad could tell his son what he couldn’t wait to do when he was older!

3. The illustrations are gorgeous and exude happiness! 

   My words will not do these pictures justice. When you open this book you see flowers everywhere, beautiful days, friendly people and radiant colors.  I don’t know where I heard Tina Fey say, “I want to go there”, but I think of that when I look at this book. I want to hop inside these pictures “Mary Poppins and Bert” style!

What is your favorite flower?  My friend Kate’s is the pansy, and until reading The Little Flower: A Parable of St. Therese of Liseux, I did not know what a pansy looked like! When I asked Kate’s daughter to point out her favorite page, she picked the page with the pansy.  So cute right!?

Reading this book is a great way to say goodbye to Winter and hello to Spring with your children! It would be a great addition to an Easter basket, an awesome birthday present or even a wonderful First Holy Communion gift!

Author Becky Arganbright  and illustrator Tracey Arvidson did an amazing job.  I hope they have another book coming out soon!

Want One?

Purchase your copy here: The Little Flower: A Parable of St. Therese’