Flowers for Sarajevo

Young Drasko is happy working with his father in the Sarajevo market. Then war encroaches. Drasko must run the family flower stand alone.

One morning, the bakery is bombed and twenty-two people are killed. The next day, a cellist walks to the bombsite and plays the most heartbreaking music Drasko can imagine. The cellist returns for twenty-two days, one day for each victim of the bombing. Inspired by the musician’s response, Drasko finds a way to help make Sarajevo beautiful again.

Inspired by real events of the Bosnian War, award-winning songwriter and storyteller John McCutcheon tells the uplifting story of the power of beauty in the face of violence and suffering. The story comes to life with the included CD in which cellist Vedran Smailović accompanies McCutcheon and performs the melody that he played in 1992 to honor those who died in the Sarajevo mortar blast.

A Wisconsin native, John McCutcheon is an accomplished instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter who has produced over forty albums. He has received multiple Grammy nominations and numerous other awards, and regularly appears on National Public Radio. The author of several picture books, he lives in Georgia.

A Louisiana native, Kristy Caldwell received an MFA in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts and has illustrated several picture books and graphic novels. She lives in New York with her partner, theater director Kelly O’Donnell.