Ice flowers by Jutta Goetze illustrated by Patricia Mullins

I first read this book in 1992 and fell in love.  Ice Flowers was part of a television series called Lift Off so the cover is not really appealing sadly.  You can see a little of the episode here and as you have guessed this book is out of print.  My friend and I wish we could give a shout out to a generous Australian book publisher and convince them to reprint this book (with a different cover).

Lisa needs a daffodil bulb for a school project.  All of the children are growing bulbs.  Lisa lives high on a snow covered mountain.

"So her father dug through the snow into the hard, dark earth ... But his spade bit the bulb and a piece was chipped off."

The children watch and wait over the coming weeks.  Eventually spring comes and "everyone had a flower to welcome it.  Everyone one except Lisa."

High in the mountains winter is going on and on.  Then one evening "Lisa woke to all the colours of the rainbow."

The most special feature of this book are the tissue paper collage illustrations by Patrica Mullins.  I have talked about Sea Breeze hotel, Jerry and Lightning Jack on this blog and her Christmas book The Magic Saddle is a treasured book in my school library and another book that most certainly needs to be reprinted.

You might also enjoy You can do it Stanley by Irena Green - a little book where the class all grow sunflowers but one girl has a plan to 'cheat' so she can win a prize for the tallest plant.  I recently went to an exhibition in Canberra by the National Centre for Australian Children's literature and they had a display showing the creation of this book.  I was amazed and thrilled.  I always thought this was such an obscure little title but clearly others love it too.