The Girl Who Turned To Stone written by Amanda Mireles and Illustrated by Natalia Golysheva

“We can change the world with kindness. Where there is concrete, we can grow flowers.”

It was a rainy day as Chole happily skipped over and hopped into puddles as she made her way toward the school bus with her brothers. But something unusual appeared before her eyes…a solitary flower growing through the cracks of the sidewalk. This flower would symbolize something very special to her as the story unfolds.

In school, Chole was getting ready for writing time, but soon found herself in a shuffle of teasing classmates. This event left her angry and sad...and when she looked down her arms had turned heavy, gray, and hard like cement.

Her heavy hands kept her from playing with the other children at recess, which only made the teasing worse. Soon the concrete she found on her hands began spreading to her back, and then her legs. It was taking over her little body and she was turning to stone. It seemed as when her heart grew heavy, so did her body.

Despite these changes, that little flower she found on her way to school was a bloom of hope for her. 

When school let out her brothers were there to greet her and cheer her up. As they enjoyed a sweet treat on their way home, they encountered an elderly woman needing assistance to cross the road…and Chloe noticed her arms were concrete too. As soon as her brother lent her a hand for assistance, the stone from the woman’s arms disappeared and in its place, colorful wildflowers appeared.

The story ends as her brother listens to Choloe’s realization that flowers come from kindness, and that they can grow even when there are only rocks.

And so, from that moment on she shook off her own concrete and magically bloomed with flowers, helping others who were also feeling heavy. Chloe spread her kindness everywhere she went, healing others, herself, and filling her world with beautiful blooms!

“Flowers can grow anywhere.”

Amanda Mireles writes a magical tale with a universal theme that children and parents can enjoy. The book is about a little girl who turns to stone during the moments in life that she feels sad or angry. She uses the concrete symbolism to represent the heaviness that so many of us experience throughout our lives, especially children in the presence of bullying within their school experience. It’s a book about hope, feelings and emotions, and how kindness can break off the heavy stone that sometimes surrounds us. It's a story about how to heal yourself by healing others, and that is my favorite take away from this children’s book. 

The illustrations created by Natalia Golysheva are soft, whimsical and reflect the gentleness of this story. I would recommend this book to teach children about kindness, spreading kindness, and finding one’s will to break through anything in life, by helping others, having hope, and believing that in life’s toughest moments, you can bloom into something beautiful!

Rainbow Reading Teacher Tips: An excellent book to teach symbolism and having students make connections to the text. Students will be able to relate themselves, to others, and the world in general about kindness and helping others, and helping yourself. This book can ignite a wonderful journaling experience with illustrations…and for something extra special…each child can create a paper flower or use real flowers, to distribute to someone inside school, a friend, family member, or community member to spread kindness and a word of encouragement to them! 

Miranda is an author, opthamologist, and mother of two little wildflowers. 

To learn more about Amanda Mireles visit her instagram at @amanda_mireles_books and to learn more about her or purchase this book visit her website!