TYPE & SUBTYPE: Realistic Fiction, Situational Realism

Title: When Flowers Bloom

Author:

Grace Dacanay Chong

Illustrator: Beth Parrocha-Doctolero

Publisher: OMF Literature Inc. For Hiyas Childrens Collection
Place and Date of Publication: Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, Philippines, 2002
No. of Pages: 32
Awards Received: None
Summary:
Once, there was a town named Umingan that all you can hear was zzzzzz because
all of the people living there were always sleeping. After farming, they sleep. After
doing household works, they sleep. After playing, they sleep. All of the people in the
said town sleep early except for two; they are Teo and his father. It was such a
boring place to live in. But all was changed when a Teacher named Milagring moved
to their town. Teo helped Milagring in arranging her house and in cleaning her
surroundings. Milagring was so puzzled that there are no flowers living in the town,
not even one so she decided to grow flowers in her yard. She also did some sewing,
embroidering, knitting and many more handcrafts in her house which amazed the
town people so they decided to go to her and ask for help on how to do such things.
Ever since, all the people in the Umingan are not sleeping early anymore, and that
they use their time wisely by doing products which then one day were being noticed
by tourists and other people from other places. The said products were being sold
including the pots made by Teos father many years ago. From that day on, the once
sleepy town was now called an awake town.
Remarks:
The book was all about how a sleepy town woke up when flowers bloom in their
place. The book was written to remind everyone that time is gold, so we must spend
it wisely. It also wants to convey that there are more to life than sleeping and
waiting for the day to end. If you want to have something different and exciting in
your life, you must try to do some different things that you were not supposed to do
before. Its all about exploring and enjoying. For me, it is very clever that in the
story, you can say that the flowers represent the colors that your world can have if
you will just plant them in your yard for you to see every time you walk out of your
house. These colors are very evident in the illustrations, showing how colourful their
surroundings is, how colourful your day is when youve done something productive
and how colourful life could be. Its like these are the colors that you can see

outside if you will just go out of your comfort zone and try something new. By
reading this, people will realize that being productive makes life also worth living.