Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

In Seedfolks, individuals in a run-down Cleveland neighborhood build a garden thanks to one child who starts it all. Each chapter is written from a different character's point of view. Through each character, I realized that while the garden helped each member of its community, the characters' motivations, life situations, and perspectives were all so different. The garden truly created common ground for people with little else in common.

I enjoyed that each chapter was written from a different characters' point of view. I started each chapter excited to learn how this individual was changed by the community garden. As the garden really started to take shape several chapters into the book, I wanted to hear from Kim again. I wanted to know how she felt knowing that what she had started had, literally, grown so huge. I was disappointed when I looked ahead and found that no character would have a repeat performance. So, when characters began reappearing in other chapters, I cherished the moments.

I wanted desperately for the characters to interact and make a true community. I appreciated that the garden brought joy to people in the community and meant something different to each of them; however I longed for them to become a true community. I have fond memories of my childhood community, but as an adult I don't feel that same sense of shared experiences in my neighborhood now. I wished that the characters would make themselves into a community. I wanted it to bring me some hope that communities can still exist. I remember Sam's chapter most. He really spoke to the divides that still existed between individual's in the garden. "Each group kept to itself, spoke its own language, and grew its own special crops." (p. 34) I wish it could be different, but that does seem to be the reality of humankind.

I am more excited to read Bull Run now, knowing that Fleischman uses the same format. I'm not usually a war book fan, but I'm holding out hope that I'll like it...