AMIR: The garden’s green was as soothing to the eye as the deep blue of that rug. I’m aware of color—I manage a fabric store. But the garden’s greatest benefit, I feel,
was not relief to the eyes, but to make the eyes see our neighbors.
This book is such an interesting discovery. It is a book for Young Adult readers but I am sure adults will enjoy the way this book is written as a jigsaw puzzle where we meet a diversity of characters all linked through their connection with a community garden. (In the UK this might be called an allotment). Seedfolks was published in 1997 - I read an ebook version. The good news is the paperback [9780064472074] from 1999 seems to be available to order from your favourite independent book seller.
Publisher blurb: A Vietnamese girl plants six lima beans in a Cleveland vacant lot. Looking down on the immigrant-filled neighborhood, a Romanian woman watches suspiciously. A school janitor gets involved, then a Guatemalan family. Then muscle-bound Curtis, trying to win back Lateesha. Pregnant Maricela. Amir from India. A sense of community sprouts and spreads.
Characters
- Kim: A Vietnamese girl mourning her father, who plants beans to connect with him.
- Ana: An elderly Romanian woman who initially distrusts Kim but later helps tend the garden.
- Wendell: A school janitor who supports Kim and contributes to the garden.
- Gonzalo: A young Guatemalan boy who feels responsible for his uncle and finds purpose in gardening.
- Curtis: A muscle-bound man trying to win back his ex-girlfriend through gardening.
- Leona: A passionate woman who fights to clean the lot and grows goldenrod, believing it has healing properties.
- Maricela: A pregnant teen who learns to care for plants and finds hope for her future.
- Amir: An Indian immigrant who grows eggplant, sharing his heritage with others in the community.
- Tío Juan: Gonzalo’s uncle, a farmer who finds joy in sharing his knowledge with children.
- Sae Young: A Korean woman who finds solace among neighbors as she tends to the garden.
Here is the Kirkus review. There is a link to book club questions on the publisher web page. Wikipedia have more plot details.
Listen to a discussion about his book with All Things Considered.
Quick facts (Source Audible blog)
- Seedfolks features 13 distinct narrators, each telling their own chapter of the story.
- Despite its large and diverse cast of characters, the book is only 80 pages long.
- The story is set in Cleveland, Ohio, and spans one year, from the planting of the first seeds to the following spring.
- Seedfolks was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults in 1998 and won the Buckeye Children's Book Award for ages six to eight in 1999.
- Seedfolks has been adapted into a play and performed on Broadway.
- The audiobook version features 13 different voice actors to represent each character.
Here are a few text quotes:
KIM: All his life in Vietnam my father had been a farmer. Here our apartment house had no yard. But in that vacant lot he would see me. He would watch my beans break ground and spread, and would notice with pleasure their pods growing plump. He would see my patience and my hard work. I would show him that I could raise plants, as he had. I would show him that I was his daughter.
WENDELL: There’s plenty about my life I can’t change. Can’t bring the dead back to life on this earth. Can’t make the world loving and kind. Can’t change myself into a millionaire. But a patch of ground in this trashy lot—I can change that. Can change it big. Better to put my time into that than moaning about the other all day. That little grammar-school girl showed me that.
LEONA: There were probably lots of folks who’d want to grow something, just like me. Then I studied all the trash on the ground. Don’t know why anyone called that lot “vacant.” The garbage was piled high as your waist, some of it from the neighborhood and some dropped off by outside people. The ones who don’t want to pay at the dump, or got dangerous chemicals, or think we’re such slobs down here we won’t mind another load of junk. ... The gardeners had made some trails through it. But I knew precious few would join ’em until that mess was hauled away.
NORA: That small circle of earth became a second home to both of us. Gardening boring? Never! It has suspense, tragedy, startling developments—a soap opera growing out of the ground. I’d forgotten that tremolo of expectation produced by a tiny forest of sprouts. What a marvelous sight it was to behold Mr. Myles’ furrowed black face inspecting his smooth-skinned young, just arrived in the world he’d shortly leave. His eyes gained back some of their life. He weeded and watered with great concentration.
Paul Fleischman grew up in Santa Monica, California. The son of well-known children's novelist Sid Fleischman, Paul was in the unique position of having his famous father's books read out loud to him by the author as they were being written. This experience continued throughout his childhood. Paul followed in his father's footsteps as an author of books for young readers, and in 1982 he released the book "Graven Images", which was awarded a Newbery Honor citation. In 1988, Paul Fleischman came out with "Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices", an unusually unique collection of poetry from the perspective of insects. This book was awarded the 1989 John Newbery Medal. Factoring in Sid Fleischman's win of the John Newbery Medal in 1987 for his book "The Whipping Boy", Paul and Sid Fleischman became to this day the only father and son authors to both win the John Newbery Medal.
