Bloom: The Surprising Seeds of Sorrel Fallowfield

I like this book

It is surreal some of my friends who have read it don’t like it but I like it because it is different

I would recommend this book to everybody who likes unique

I really enjoyed this story

An amazing book showing much knowledge of flora and a smaller version of climate change, Neena was a fun character

Amazing! Good for any over 8s.

I think that this book is good because it is funny and it is mysterious and quirky in its own ways all. I would also recommend this to someone because it is interesting and starts out from an obedient girl who finds a packet of seeds…

Wonderful! A heartfelt story that truly loves up to its title and has your heart bloom with sorrel’s.

so mindful

the best

This book grew on me (!), and by the end I could not put it down. It conveys a couple very strong, overt messages which can never be shouted about loudly and often enough. I am running the school gardening club and I will be recommending this to the children in the club to read alongside our gardening journey.

This book is soo good . This book is written in a fab way . My favourite character has got to be Sorrel as she is so like ...... fun .I would recommend this book for people who feel odd as they will always find a way to shine .

Wast good at first then got better

I loved this book as it is really cool.

This fiction book is a great read and teaches you about plants It is incredibly lifelike I would recommend it to anyone who likes a thrilling fairy tale

No

Alright

‘Bloom: The Surprising Seeds of Sorrel Fallowfield’ by Nicola Skinner

‘Bloom: The Surprising Seeds of Sorrel Fallowfield’ is an ecological cautionary tale: be very careful what you wish for.

Sorrel Fallowfield of Little Sterilis lives with her Mum in ‘Cheery Cottage’, which is anything but. Reflecting the atmosphere of the town, it is a place of “infectious” gloom and misery. Sensing her Mum’s unhappiness - “the (cottage’s) misery seeped into Mum, too” - Sorrel decides to fix this by being “good at being good” and by to doing as she is told. This makes her a model pupil at her school, where the motto is as follows: “May obedience shape you. May conformity mould you. May Rules polish you.”

When the headmaster, Mr Grittysnit, announces that there will be a ‘Grittysnit Star’ competition to find the best pupil, it looks as if Sorrel will walk it. Indeed, at this point in the story she inspires little sympathy, coming across as a self-serving do-gooder - despite her professed good intentions. Sorrel is saved from being so by her best friend, the budding scientist and non-conformist Neena, who is in many ways the true heroine of the tale. When Grittysnit also announces that the school playing field – the only green space left – is going to be concreted-over by powerful local businessman Valentini’s construction firm, making way for an exam hall, it is Neena who protests and petitions against it - although to no avail.

When a mysterious mini-earthquake in Sorrel’s patio throws up an ancient packet of ‘Surprising Seeds’ - promising, once sown, to ‘reap what you truly need’ - all her plans become seriously derailed and the true story of Little Sterilis, or ‘Little Cherrybliss’, as the town was once called, is uncovered. She and Neena find the one remaining Garden Centre left in the town – now ramshackle and neglected – and meet its owner, Sid Strangeways. It is here that we learn the sorry story of Sid’s ancestor, Aunt Agatha, and of the terrible revenge she plans to reap on the town’s inhabitants.

What follows is garden anarchy, as flowers and plants start growing out of heads – or what the press call ‘Scalp Sprout’. Skinner cleverly matches the plants to the personalities of her characters: the scalp of shy, unassuming teacher, Miss Mossheart develops into a carnivorous Venus fly-trap, her confidence blossoming accordingly; while Sorrel’s arch-enemy, Chrissie Valentini, sprouts a foul-smelling “corpse flower” as retribution.

Sorrel, her own head crowded with flowers, feels that she has been tricked by Agatha into sowing the seeds in the first place, and wants to return to “normal”. However, it has become far too late, and fertility and fecundity transform sterile Little Sterilis forever. What Sorrel called a curse really “depends on your point of view” - as Sid points out; and Agatha’s “revenge” is really a blessing in disguise.

There is one last interesting point. Although published in 2019, we find in ‘Bloom’ references to a Scalp Spout “epidemic”, to the threat of hospitals being overwhelmed, and of people being asked to isolate to prevent its spread. A coincidence, or perhaps one of the first examples in children’s fiction to address the covid pandemic?

exciting

Excellent read, fun but with a serious message. Fiction book about looking after the planet, protecting nature and the results of building everywhere and destroying nature. Sorrel was a great character, brave and caring, who inadvertently caused the whole village to grow plants through their heads because she was trying to improve life for her mum. Definitely one to recommend to children 9+

I think it was good because it was very good and detailed i really enjoyed it and i would recommend it to many people . It was fiction and my favourite character was Sorrel. It was really enjoyable!!!

Bloom was an amazing book to read. I loved the concept of that the humans gained plant qualities and needed things such as light and slept all the time. My faviourite character was neena because she wasnt bothered about breaking the rules to spread awareness about the wildlife.

I thought it was a really good book because i liked the plot and the idea of plants growing out of her head. I really like the characters, my favourite is there teacher, Miss Mossheart, who is a shy teacher at the start of the book with a wide knowlegde of gardening, despite the town of little sterlis have little nature.I would definitely reccomend this book.

it was fab

generally ok

I think this book is about to look inside you and belive in yourself.

I think this book shows to believe in yourself and use what you got to bloom.

I was about flowers

Sorrel Fallowfield was my favourite character because she didn’t explore the seeds at first but then she showed them her friend Neena and they experimented with the seeds. They found out how to plant the seeds and planted them on their heads because they wouldn’t grow outside but weirdly they did grow on there heads and spread onto other peoples heads

This book was amazing! It made my cry, it made me laugh and was just incredible. My favourite character was Sorrel (the main character) because she just wanted to make her mum happy. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good fiction book with an amazing moral.

Was scary

I didn’t love this one! The first 50 pages did really grab me as I was intrigued with the world. Sorrel is a young girl who lives with her mum in a Sterilis, i grey, drab town. Her headteacher is called Mr Grittysnit, and most of the other characters in the book have names that link to nature (or the opposite of nature) in some way. She discovers some magic seeds which cause chaos in her town and change things for the better. The premise is fantastic but I didn’t connect with the world. I felt like the dreariness wasn’t made explicit enough in the town as I can only remember the garden shop, the school and Sorrel’s house as settings which made the plot feel slow. When the chaos began I didn’t like how it was made to seem painful and scary which is the opposite of how people felt about it in the end. The last 20 pages I enjoyed because it became clearer that the flowers and the war between the natural world and Mr Grittysnit’s concrete was an allegory for mental health. I only saw this briefly in the mum throughout and the character of one of the teachers, who I actually really enjoyed reading about, but I didn’t feel like the characters were developed enough. This book wouldn’t suit year 3 I don’t think, but upper KS2 could get a lot out of some passages if looking at the skill of inference.