Book Reviews by Bonnie Fisher

Author: Eve Bunting - Flower Garden; author Paul Fleischman - Seed Folks.

 Page from Flower Garden  
My heart beats faster when I step from the pavement of a Minneapolis Street onto the soft path of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden. A recent visit brought to mind two of my favorite children's books about gardens in metropolitan areas.

Flower Garden, by Eve Bunting with illustrations by Kathryn Hewitt, begins with a small girl and her dad pushing a shopping cart full of plants: tulips, daisies, pansies, geraniums. We follow the two through the checkout, walking down the street, onto the bus, to their home in an apartment building high above the street. They plant the flowers in a window box … where butterflies can stop and rest – And ladybugs can meet…. Walkers walking down below/Will lift their heads and see….  Then we see Hewitt’s richly-hued painting of the little girl looking out through Purple, yellow, red, and white – A color jamboree. It’s the perfect birthday present for a tired mom returning home from work.

Seed Folks, by Newbery Medal winner Paul Fleischman, tells the story of young teen who lives on a dismal city block where neighbors pass without saying hello.
He starts a garden in a vacant lot and is soon joined by people of various cultures, ethnicities, occupations and ages to cultivate a city garden. As they nurture the garden together, connections and friendships blossom. Seed Folks is available in audio book as well as in text.
  
Flower Garden book cover Cover of Seed Folks  

– Bonnie Fisher is Professor Emerita at St. Catherine University. Partially retired, she enjoys putzing in her front yard prairie garden.
Photos by Judy Remington

  
 
©2010 Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc. This article was published in the Friends newsletter The Fringed Gentian™ Summer 2010, Vol. 58 #3