Seedfolks (MG)

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman. 1997. HarperCollins. 80 pages.

I stood before our family altar. It was dawn.

Seedfolks is an interesting little novel. The focus isn't on any one character--not even a handful of characters--no, the focus is on a community, on a garden. Each chapter is narrated by a different member of the community, an individual that has taken an interest in the garden. The first narrator is Kim. The garden is her idea. Though I don't think she could have foreseen just how big the garden would become, how many people would invest their time and energy into making this vacant lot into a garden, a real garden full of vibrant, growing, thriving plants.

Readers meet characters of all ages, all ethnicities, both genders. Each chapter, each vignette, is short. But just because these entries are short doesn't mean that they lack heart and soul. While I can't say I loved all the characters equally, I came to care for many of them. I liked seeing how the garden changed the community. How sharing a place brought people--brought strangers--together in a way that most would have thought impossible.

I liked this one.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews