Title: Seedfolks
Author: Paul Fleischman
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Number of Pages: 112
Rating: B
Recommended?: Yes
This isn’t normally the kind of book I read at all but nevertheless it ended up charming me. It’s a bittersweet story about community and the importance of finding purpose in life and every chapter is narrated by a different character living in an impoverished urban community. They all come from different circumstances and are highly diverse in terms of race, age, and background but they all end up coming together to work on a public garden that starts with a lonely girl planting a couple of seeds.
The work gets increasingly hard as residents clean up mounds of garbage in order to set up their plots and turf disputes come up. You never get the opportunity to know the characters that well but their stories are authentic and compelling. Each chapter had a black-and-white sketch of the viewpoint character which I enjoyed, and the portrayal of the language and cultural barriers they face is believable (even if the severity and resolution of their conflicts is a little bit idealistic.)
It’s an unusual little story that’s appropriate for readers of all ages, and I think it would make an excellent read aloud for families. It’s also extremely short and can easily be read in one sitting, while still managing to make an impact that’s rare for a book of it’s level of simplicity and brevity. Seedfolks isn’t emotionally heavy for the most part (even though it deals with some serious themes,) and it made me feel happy while reading it. It’s positivity is a rare and much-needed commodity in a society where it’s increasingly hard to feel hopeful about anything.
Sarah's Corner 