From award-winning illustrator Esm? Shapiro and debut talent Kate Finney comes the unforgettable story of Belladonna, a spunky, beautiful plant who must learn to surviveeven though she cant flee from those who want to devour her!
One of New York Magazine / The Strategist's Best New Books for Kids Published in 2025!
One of Betsy Bird's Top Funny Picture Books of 2025!
Everyone in the forest knows about Belladonnathat tall, beautiful plant whose berries are so delicious that theyre forever being gobbled up. Day after day, poor Belladonna is nibbled at until theres almost nothing left of her. But unlike the animals who can leap, climb, or fly away, Belladonna, being a plant, is firmly rooted in place. So whats a plant to do to survive?
This is the story of how Belladonna learns to harness her own chemical powers to protect herself and her descendants . . . and how she learns from a great cast of plant and animal charactersculminating in a dandy pheasantthat no one ever survives alone.
This one-of-a-kind picture book is gorgeously illustrated by Esm? Shapiro with wit and humor, and has an astonishingly epic framing that carries Belladonna across eons into her final, powerful form!
Kate Finneygrew up among familiar trees on the outskirts of Philadelphia. She is the recipient of Vassar’s Ann E. Imbrie Prize for Excellence in Fiction Writing. She splits her time between Brooklyn and an island in Maine.
Esmé Shapirogrew up in Laurel Canyon, California, and Ontario, Canada, and is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. Her previous picture books include
Ooko, which was nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award in 2016. Shapiro also illustrated
Yak and Doveby Kyo Maclear,
Eliza: The Story of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamiltonby Margaret McNamara, and
A Garden of Creaturesby Sheila Heti. Shapiro livl
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