Neighborhood Connects With Garden

Book_♥; Seedfolks
Author_♥; Paul Fleischman
Pages_♥; 70

What starts with a nine year old Vietnamese girl planting 3 Lima beans for her long gone father, turns into community garden, and into an entire neighborhood bond. This happened when Ana, an old woman, watches the Vietnamese girl do something behind a trashcan, in an empty lot. When Ana digs up the area, she finds the seeds and feels bad, so reburies them. Feeling good to be involved, she keeps watching the beans take growth. As the story continues, people, one by one, start to notice the small garden and take part, not knowing what the future had in store. Each chapter, a new character's point of view is expressed, and we soon find out that everyone has had an important history, which caused their contributions to the garden. After a while, the garden grows and grows as the neighbors- elders, youngsters, new comers, and long time residents start to connect with one another. Everyone began with their own reasons to plant something, and what the garden gave each one back was very different. Like the garden- colorful and unique, the neighbors talked and befriended each other, earning trust and comfort with the people living near them. Read this book and see how significantly the garden takes this once polluted quiet neighborhood for a transformation. The author's good uses of comparisons will also help you picture the scenes in many parts of the book. ;)

- amy!