Seedfolks
by Paul Fleischman (Author) Judy Pedersen (Illustrator)
ALA Best Book for Young Adults ∙ School Library Journal Best Book ∙ Publishers Weekly Best Book ∙ IRA/CBC Children's Choice ∙ NCTE Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts
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.
Newbery-winning author Paul Fleischman uses thirteen speakers to bring to life a community garden's founding and first year. The book's short length, diverse cast, and suitability for adults as well as children have led it to be used in countless one-book reads in schools and in cities across the country.
Seedfolks has been drawn upon to teach tolerance, read in ESL classes, promoted by urban gardeners, and performed in schools and on stages from South Africa to Broadway.
The book's many tributaries--from the author's immigrant grandfather to his adoption of two brothers from Mexico--are detailed in his forthcoming memoir, No Map, Great Trip: A Young Writer's Road to Page One.
The size of this slim volume belies the profound message of hope it contains. --Christian Science Monitor
And don't miss Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, the Newbery Medal-winning poetry collection!
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Kirkus Review - Children
Using the multiple voices that made Bull Run (1995) so absorbing, Fleischman takes readers to a modern inner-city neighborhood and a different sort of battle, as bit by bit the handful of lima beans an immigrant child plants in an empty lot blossoms into a community garden, tended by a notably diverse group of local residents.
Publishers Weekly
Arraying different voices like threads on a loom, Fleischman (Bull Run) weaves a seamless tale of the advent of a garden in urban Cleveland and how it unites a community. Here Fleischman slips with equal ease into the voices of a nine-year-old Vietnamese girl grieving for the father she never knew; a retired peace activist; a shopkeeper from Delhi; a dedicated British nurse; a 39-year-old Korean widow and crime victim hesitantly rejoining the world; a pregnant Mexican teenager; and seven other equally diverse characters. Fleischman carefully adds texture upon texture, crafting his story with wry humor and lustrous imagery: dead leaves reappear as the winter snows melt away "like a bookmark showing where you'd left off"; beans inadvertently uprooted are laid back in the ground "as gently as sleeping babies." The story's quiet beauty unfurls effortlessly—and lingers after the final page has been turned. Ages 10-up. (May)
Copyright 1997 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission
School Library Journal
A beautiful, multicolored harvest. The message of diversity, people, and sensibility is universal, and beautifully cultivated by an author who has a green thumb with words.
Review quotes
Best book for teaching tolerance EVER!
I have taught this book to 7th grade students for YEARS as a way to teach narrative voice, point of view as our first whole group read...an annual favorite. They choose a favorite character and focus on that character's POV, illustrate their findings, and share them with the class as a way to showcase their art & insights.
YAF058110 - Young Adult Fiction | Social Themes | Emotions & Feelings
YAF032000 - Young Adult Fiction | Lifestyles | City & Town Life
YAF050000 - Young Adult Fiction | Recycling & Green Living
Gardens
Neighborhoods
