I'm Glad That You're Happy

PreS-Gr 2—When a kind florist places two plants together in the same pot, he instructs the stronger of the two to take care of its smaller, weaker friend. Not long after, an artist visits the shop and purchases the pot, promising to plant both sprigs in his garden once they are big enough. The artist takes the plants home and they become part of his family, present for both the joys and sorrows of their lives. Over time, however, the plants grow too big to thrive in the same pot, and the artist must separate them: "It was a difficult moment. My roots were entwined in yours. Leaving you was hard." While painful, the big plant realizes that the little one needs more space to grow, and dreams of the day when they will be reunited in the artist's garden and "grow into huge trees" side by side. Rendered in pastel, colored pencil, and collage, the illustrations have a hazy, ethereal feel. Kazemi warmly depicts a close family, and the art is filled with cozy details of their life together. It also teems with a variety of plant life, though, curiously, only the potted narrator and its partner are anthropomorphized.