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Tuula Pere (b. 1958) holds a Ph.D. in Law and is an award-winning children’s author from Helsinki, Finland. Her doctoral dissertation, published in 2015, examines the limits of freedom of speech in the Finnish mass media amidst the social and cultural shifts of the 1960s and 1970s. Prior to her doctoral research, Tuula Pere had a career spanning over two decades as a lawyer and held various expert and executive positions in large industrial companies.
Since 2010, Tuula Pere has published over sixty children's books, many of which have been translated into multiple languages. She has also authored poetry and aphorisms for children, as well as short stories and non-fiction for adults. Tuula Pere is an avid music and sports enthusiast and a keen baker. She is married and the mother of three.
Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite
If you could grow anything you wanted in your very own garden, what would it be? In Tuula Pere’s My Sunflowers, Millie longs to grow something other than the boring vegetables her parents grow. She wants to grow something bright, cheery, and colorful, like sunflowers. Her parents think she’s too young and her efforts would be better spent helping them grow vegetables. Millie has other ideas and manages to spend her birthday money on some soil and a few sunflower seedlings. With the advice of the kindly garden center owner, Millie tends her secret garden carefully in the hope that the seedlings will grow into big, colorful sunflowers. But autumn arrives and fierce storms with it. Will Millie’s sunflowers survive the bad weather and make her proud?
Tuula Pere’s picture book, My Sunflowers, is an addition to the I Did It series. The plot follows one girl’s dream to grow something beautiful and to do it all by herself. The language is simple so young readers can easily follow along. The illustrations by Catty Flores are superb and help move the events forward. It’s an invigorating story full of positive, encouraging thoughts that will help young readers aspire to work toward their dreams like Millie did. It’s important to believe in yourself and what you can do, even if you have to do it on your own. A great story to boost self-confidence and help young readers seek their full potential in all that they do. I loved it!
