This is a really, really quick read. It tells the story of a varied group of people who begin a community garden in a vacant lot. It's about empathy and understanding.

Uplifting, quick read.

This was a sweet little book...but I felt uncomfortable reading some of the chapters, especially when I read the author’s note at the end. For example, one of the vignettes is told from the perspective of a middle aged Chinese immigrant who has suffered a very specific trauma, and her chapter is written in broken English. The author explains later this was based on a news story of a similar incident happening to a Saudi Arabian (male) immigrant. Why an apparently privileged white dude felt compelled to make those specific changes and comfortable writing it this way is confusing to me. Even the title is lifted from Black history, specifically post-enslavement. There were some other conclusions made in the book that were eyebrow raising too. Yes, it was diverse...but who was telling the story and profiting off of it? I’m not sure he had the right, if that makes sense. Anyway, on the surface, it was a quick, sentimental read and did serve to remind me of why I love gardening so much.

LOVED this book. A story set in Cleveland, in the city itself that begins with a little girl who plants bean seeds on an abandoned, trashy lot in memory of her dad. The story continues on from the eyes of a different neighborhood resident as others catch on and continue to expand the community garden. What a great story.

"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." Yes!—the brain on nature!
Heartwarming and beautiful…one simple act can change a community and create real humanity. So very lovely!

I loved it. Uplifting set of short stories telling how a community accidentally made a community garden. I can see why it’s used in schools.

I really did not expect to like this book as much as I did; the story seemed really contrived (from the description I read) - it seemed like just another silly story about a garden that brings a community together (and I'm so jaded that this isn't a thing I want to read about) but it was really well done and I liked it a lot.

Just had to reread this to be sure I remembered how good it was.

So while there are a couple things I perceived as flaws about this book, I also feel like they create awesome teachable moments. With the book having been written in the late 1990s, I think the few slurs present in it weren’t known fully to be slurs at the time—maybe they were and the author was using them to show the ignorance of certain characters. I don’t know. Nonetheless, I would love to see a republication or an author’s note that addresses this. Having the couple slurs present though also allows for a teachable moment with kids regarding social norms evolving and the concept of when we know better, we do better. I’m also wondering about the authenticity of the many cultural and ethnic voices portrayed in the book—did the author consult people of the various cultures to make sure his representation of their lived experiences is accurate? Again, the concept of own voices texts is relatively newly appreciated (and even in existence) in middle grade and YA lit, so the fact that the author took this idea on in the 90s is pretty commendable. Anyway, thanks for listening to my rambling thoughts lol. Anyone else who has read this, I’d love to know your thoughts on these things.

The premise behind this book sounds great until you actually read it. It’s ostensibly about a community of diverse people coming together and out growing their own biases about one another, but considering this is written by a white man in the 90s, it fails. The author relies on his own understanding of race to write this story, which is heavily flawed and biased. His own racism comes out and contrasts heavily against his aim of tolerance and acceptance.

One character, a Korean woman, narrated her chapter in the stereotypical broken English trope that mocks Asian people. Several white characters refer to their black neighbors as “negroes” with the excuse being that those white characters are old, and yet this takes place in the 90s when that term would be considered outdated and offensive. One character derides her neighbors, implying that relying on welfare checks is shameful and greedy.

In one chapter, a white character and a character of color talk about how the white character had previously discriminated against the character of color. That white character apologizes and defends herself, saying “Back then, I didn’t know it was you…” A different character is at first suspicious of a black child who hangs around the garden, just for the child being black. But once that character gets to know the child, he remarks, “He was not a black teenage boy. He was Royce.”

This is the author’s idea of tolerance and acceptance. With white people ignoring a part of POC’s identity in order to treat them with dignity. For a book that is used to teach children about discrimination and acceptance, it advances the idea of color blind racism. It is a book of its time and its author, but now there are much better books to talk about race and acceptance with children.