Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman (1999)

There comes a time when young readers begin to devour the books that capture their imagination and discard those that do not. The challenge for parents is to help the budding reader find those elusive books that they can lose themselves in. Books they will remember into adulthood. The books that turn them into lifetime readers. It s a critical time. If they don t find those books, will they forever look at reading as a chore rather than a joy? Since this is a concept so foreign to me as to be nearly incomprehensible, I try hard to find books for my ten-year-old son that will open the literary world, with all it has to offer, and help him find the joy that is so carefully bound between thousands of covers.

This is no small task, and I seek out help when I feel stuck. An excellent teacher at the school my son attends has allowed me to pick his brain. Even more, he has actually lent me books from his own collection that he thinks will be both challenging and engrossing. One of these books is Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman. This very slender volume, coming in at a slight 69 pages, contains more simple wisdom than many books spanning hundreds of pages.

Seedfolks takes us on the journey of the Gibb Street Garden, from its modest inception through the first remarkable year. Gibb Street is in a rundown part of Cleveland. An area filled with astonishing diversity all closeted within its worn apartments by poverty, fear and loneliness. The story opens with Kim, a young girl from Vietnam, planting beans in secret. She mourns a father she never knew, hoping that growing the vegetables will bring him closer to her in spirit. Others begin to notice her small, furtive project. At first suspecting foul play, then imagining a spot in the garden for themselves.

The story is told in thirteen chapters. Each chapter has a different narrator, telling his or her story, always ending with the garden. With each narrator we get a different point of view, a different set of expectations, a different life experience. Taken as a whole, the chapters paint a gloriously full and rich picture of this garden, this community and how each changes the other.

As far as readability goes, Seedfolks is an absolute winner. The chapters are short, each providing a small slice of a character. The complexity is there, beneath the words, hidden in the actions of each successive narrator. But the text itself is easily within the abilities of its target audience (10 and up). There are lessons about poverty, diversity, community and dedication, but not one of them comes off as preachy. Things just are the way they are on Gibb Street. Some of the characters use words that are controversial; some are in less than savory situations. There is one chapter involving a pregnant teen that parents might want to consider reading with their child, so as to answer questions and provide information. This isn t a prettified world presented here, rather a realistic one, written at a level that allows children to begin to understand the concepts of community, hardship and diversity and perhaps relate them to their own world.

Seedfolks is an excellent book to have a child read aloud. Not only is the short chapter format ideal for such an undertaking, but it also gives parent and child a chance to explore some of the more abstract concepts offered here. This also allows parents a way to help gauge their child s level of comprehension of underlying meaning and choose future books well. My son enjoyed this book, and the time spent reading it together. And just maybe he took away some understanding of the profound impact a community can have upon its members. And he s one book closer to that most lofty of goals: becoming a lifelong reader.