Status
Available
Publication
HarperTrophy (2004), Edition: 1, 70 pages
Library's review
Using the multiple voices that made Bull Run (1995) so absorbing, Fleischman takes readers to a modern inner-city neighborhood and a different sort of battle, as bit by bit the handful of lima beans an immigrant child plants in an empty lot blossoms into a community garden, tended by a notably
-Kirkus Review
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diverse group of local residents. It's not an easy victory: Toughened by the experience of putting her children through public school, Leona spends several days relentlessly bulling her way into government offices to get the lot's trash hauled away; others address the lack of readily available water, as well as problems with vandals and midnight dumpers; and though decades of waging peace on a small scale have made Sam an expert diplomat, he's unable to prevent racial and ethnic borders from forming. Still, the garden becomes a place where wounds heal, friendships form, and seeds of change are sown. Readers won't gain any great appreciation for the art and science of gardening from this, but they may come away understanding that people can work side by side despite vastly different motives, attitudes, skills, and cultural backgrounds. It's a worthy idea, accompanied by Pedersen's chapter-heading black-and-white portraits, providing advance information about the participants' races and, here and there, ages. (Fiction. 9-11)-Kirkus Review
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Subjects
Awards
Young Hoosier Book Award (Nominee — Middle Grade — 2000)
Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award (Nominee — 2000)
Utah Beehive Book Award (Nominee — Young Adult — 2001)
Buckeye Children's & Teen Book Award (Nominee — Grades 6-8 — 1999)
William Allen White Children's Book Award (Nominee — 1999-2000)
Golden Kite Award (Honor — 1998)
Nēnē Award (Nominee — 1999)
Jane Addams Children's Book Award (Honor Book — 1998)
Virginia Readers' Choice (Nominee — Middle School — 2001)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 1998)
CCBC Choices (1997)
NCTE Adventuring with Books: A Booklist for Pre-K—Grade 6 (12th Edition: 1996-1998)
Read Aloud Indiana Book Award (Middle School — 1998)
Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (Selection — 1998)
Children's Favorites Awards (Selection — 1998)
Teacher Favorites Award (1998)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1997
ISBN
0064472078 / 9780064472074