Flower Block

Shortlisted for the Teach Early Years Awards 2024

When Jeremiah plants a packet of sunflower seeds, the very last thing he expects is for the vines and leaves to grow overnight and burst through the ceiling of his apartment!

As Jeremiah and his brother chase the magical plant up through the floors of their tower block home, they discover an array of curious neighbours who join in the adventure. But what could be waiting for them at the top of the building? And will Jeremiah find his voice to help the neighbours discover the true magic hidden within these sunflower seeds?

A glorious celebration of the power of nature to bring communities together, from talented debut author Lanisha Butterfield and illustrator Hoang Giang.
“An utterly stunning debut picture book about community, nature and the things that bring us together. Warmly written and gorgeously illustrated, Lanisha and Hoang are a perfectly synced storytelling duo.” -Dapo Adeola, illustrator of LOOK UP!

Selected for Book Trust’s Great Book Guide 2024-2025

Lanisha Butterfield (Author)
Lanisha is a lifelong book junkie, whose quiet ambition of becoming an author – long-held and nurtured with lunchtime trips to the local bookshop – were realised during lockdown, with a serendipitous, snap decision to join an online Penguin Children’s Book Workshop.

A woman of Black mixed race heritage, born and raised on a council estate in Oxford, to a hardworking single mother, she is very proud of her working class roots and hopes to challenge misconceptions of council estate life and remind readers – that, no matter where they are from, or what their family might look like, they are just as worthy of fairy-tale and magic, as anyone else. Her debut children’s picture book, Flower Block, publishes in 2024.

Hoang Giang (Illustrator)
Hoang Giang was born in Dalat, a small highland city in Vietnam, before moving to Ho Chi Minh City to work as an illustrator. She always has fun while working and likes to make her characters as lively as possible - because the story belongs to the characters, themselves.