Seedfolks

"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.  A fact bobbed up from my memory, that the ancient Egyptians prescribed walking through a garden as a cure for the mad.  It was a mind-altering drug we took daily."

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

TJ and I went out to eat with some long time friends at Cafe Madrid, our favorite (...only) local Spanish restaurant.  The food was delightful and the company was great: we sat at the table for three hours.  For a good 45 minutes we discussed books, which is something I can certainly get excited about.  As usual, I suggested Funny in Farsi, which is probably in my top 3 favorites of all time.  Our friends suggested Seedfolks, which they said was a "good, quick read."  They were right.  I picked it up from the library three days later and read it in an hour.

There is an empty lot in the middle of Cleveland that has turn into a dumping ground of sorts: it's filled with old tires, refrigerators, a sofa and rats.  But a little girl who misses her father starts an unexpected change in the old lot when she plants a few beans: she hopes her dad will look down from heaven and see that she is just like him, gardening.  Each chapter introduces a different character, who goes to the lot for a different reason, planting hope with their various seeds.

I anticipated that the same 3-5 characters would each have a few chapters of narration but every chapter, from start to finish, was a different character, thirteen in all.  I really enjoyed it.  My favorite books are happy books and I loved seeing this group of strangers work together to make something beautiful.

I'm uncertain the best age for reading this but you could certainly have some good conversations with children about acceptance, service, kindness and hard work.  I heartily recommend this one.