The Blue Roses

Review
By Center for Child. Books

(Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books) “[THE BLUE ROSES] has a tenderness and spirit that gives it more impact than many stories of bereavement and the gardening metaphor remains sufficiently well rooted to avoid airy abstractness. The affectionate relationship between grandfather and granddaughter is touchingly depicted and it’s a refreshingly contemporary portrait of a Native American family. Córdova balances long, lean, accented lines in her figures with the tidy precision in her floral and garden details; though the people are somewhat prettified, the earthy richness of the textured acrylics keeps the visuals appropriately grounded. This is a quietly respectful book about loss, survival, and legacy.