How is it Friday the thirteenth again? That's twice in one year. The bad luck, the utter disasters, the looming darkness, it was all prophesised!
Ahem, sorry. Where was I?Oh yes, 'Mille Fleur's Poison Garden'.
A not-so dark kids' picture book about how being different, and creative and imaginative, is wonderful, and needed, in any community, and it is nothing to be scared of, or ashamed of.
I wanted to read it when I found out how often 'Prunella', a similar picture book from 2024, which I like, is compared to it. 'Prunella' is being compared to 'Millie Fleur', not the other way round, like the latter is the superior product. And it was published only fourteen days before 'Prunella'.
Well, now that I have devoured both books, I can say that, in my opinion, the two have their own unique strengths and styles. Sure, there are similarities: both feature a young outcast female protagonist who is a gardener of unusual, scary, spooky, and prickly plants, and they are ostracised by their community because of this, but the younger, more openminded generation comes to appreciate, accept and enjoy their difference, and their plants. Also, both girls have lovely, supportive parents (Fleur's mother is a beautiful saint).
But this is where I stop comparing them, as this is meant to be a review of 'Millie Fleur's Poison Garden'.
It is sort-of light and cartoony, with an edge. It's style, aesthetic and storytelling are reminiscent of Tim Burton's works, such as 'Edward Scissorhands', and yes, 'Wednesday', as Millie Fleur La Fae does resemble Wednesday Addams via looks and a love for the macabre and morbidly different, though she is cuter and cheerier. Heck, the art even features snakes - or giant worms? - that are remarkably similar to those in 'Beetlejuice'.
Millie Fleur is clearly meant to be a witch, or a witch adjacent. She moves into an old, 'tumbledown house on a scruffy hill at the edge of town' - the town of Garden Glen, a "picture-perfect place", a 'place of sameness' - she's an outsider who loves the dark, scary and forbidden, especially when it comes to plants (hers may in fact be sentient), and she owns a black pointy hat, and a pet frog who reflects her moods and actions. Her new garden is condemned by the rest of Garden Glen; its Rosebud Club members call it "odd", "unruly", and "appalling". These dull, boring, stiff, snooty, snobby, closeminded, conservative ignoramuses just hate the garden - which is an extension of Millie Fleur herself, and it is at her home and property, so why do they think it's any of their business? - because it is different, when she's only a child!
At least the children of Garden Glen, once Millie Fleur takes action and shows off her plants to them at school (even their teacher is curious!), can open their minds and hearts to her and her garden, and embrace change and difference, for future generations.
The art is very nice, cute and richly detailed.
Millie Fleur's beloved wild, weird, sentient plants include: fanged fairy moss (that look like the trolls turned to stone from 'Hilda'), sore toothworts, tentacled tansies, glowing jack-in-the-bushes, grumpy gilliflowers, bone blooms, sneezing stickyweeds, witches worts, freaky freckled figs, curdled milkweeds, swampy inkcaps, whopping wishflowers, snake plants, ghost nettles, belching huckleberries, yaga bushes, snapdragons, spider plants, cacti, turnips, mushrooms, cabbages, Venus flytraps, and pumpkins. Sprouts, sprigs, and sprogs, oh my!
(Millie Fleur's garden is inspired by a real poisonous garden, The Poison Garden, at a castle in Alnwick, Northumberland, England. I would love to visit it someday.)
Overall, a highly recommended "Halloween" picture book for children, with the always-truthful-and-relevant message of being yourself, and accepting and embracing difference and individuality. Difference is what makes the world, and life, interesting and amazing, after all. Reject dangerous, harmful, boring conformity and conservativity.
Weirdos unite!
'"This won't do. According to our rules, your garden is unacceptable. We simply cannot have this poisonous mess in our town."
"But it's not poisonous!" Millie Fleur scowled. "It's just not like yours."'
'"Your garden is different from anything they've seen before," her mother told her. "Some people are scared of things that are different."'
Wait, does Millie Fleur have a Totoro backpack?! And a doll with a pumpkin head!
What an adorable, geeky, witchy girl after my own heart!
Final Score: 4/5
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