Eleven-year-old Flora Mora loves a good adventure, especially if it means traveling somewhere new. But when she and her three best friends—Marsik the cat, Speedy the garden snail, and Greeny, her favorite houseplant—arrive in the faraway city of Grayland, they’re in for quite a surprise.
Everything is as GRAY as its name! Buildings are gray, people are gloomy. Not even a smile in sight. Even the plants are droopy. What on earth happened?
When Flora comes across a tiny, thirsty plant crying for help, she doesn’t think twice about saving it. But that one small act of kindness changes everything.
That night, Jasmine, the Queen of Plants, appears in Flora’s dreams and gives her a very special gift—the power to heal plants! Suddenly, Flora is no ordinary eleven-year-old. She’s PLANT GIRL!
With help from her furry, slimy, and leafy friends, Flora sets out to bring color, flowers, and a little happiness back to Grayland. Along the way, she discovers that you don’t have to be big or powerful to make a difference.
Sometimes, all it takes is a little kindness.
Because when you take care of the plants, the plants take care of you!
Illustrator Nastya Varlamova and Author Richard Oshen dish the dirt
NASTYA: I had a wonderful follower from LA — a talented person with a wealth of life experience. His name is Richard Oshen. Instagram is a magical place. Sometimes it connects you with someone and guides you through life, almost like parallel universes.
RICHARD: I was scrolling through Instagram one day and stopped on artwork that was creative, gentle, and kind. It was Nastya’s. I followed her immediately. We were both in the middle of big moves at the time — she was relocating, and I was leaving L.A. for a cabin in the mountains. When she resurfaced, her artwork had transformed. It was vibrant and full of color.
NASTYA: One day, while messaging, we joked that I’d be the perfect prototype for a character who saves plants, helped by her animal superheroes. We laughed it off.
RICHARD: Then I sent her the first draft of the manuscript.
NASTYA: It inspired me so much. I started creating characters, sketching pages, building a world. Once the first illustration was done, the motivation became even stronger.
RICHARD: At first I wanted Plant Girl to have superpowers — like The Flash or Spider-Man, but through the plant kingdom. Then as I saw what Nastya was drawing, my thinking shifted. Maybe Plant Girl’s real superpower is just being kind. The more I thought about it, the more I believed it.
Kindness is the ultimate superpower.
To learn more about Flora, click here to go to her website!
