I recommend Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman to adolescent and adult readers who are interested in a simple yet inspiring story. Three reasons I like this book are because it has interesting characters, important life lessons and an inspiring message. If you read this book, you will see how one nine year old girl’s idea to plant a few lima beans in a vacant lot caused a major change in her neighborhood.One reason I like the book is because of the many interesting characters. There are young people, old people, and people from all over the world. I enjoyed reading each character’s perspective about what was happening in the community. I also liked reading about what each character decided to plant in the garden and how their choices revealed something about their cultural traditions and family life. Finally, it’s interesting to see how the characters’ relationships with one another develop as they get involved in the garden. Although they are neighbors and live in the same community, many of them had never spoken to one another before there was a garden, but once they all got involved with the garden that began to change. There are several important life lessons to be learned from this story. One of the lessons is that although we may not be able to solve the big problems in the world, we can and we should work to improve the little ones. For example, the characters in the story transformed a vacant lot that was full of garbage and rats into a nice garden that made their neighborhood cleaner and safer. The garden also brought people from the community together. Another life lesson from the book is that adults can learn from the children in our lives, and they can help us find solutions to our problems. One example is when a child proposes a clever solution to the problem of not having a source of water in the garden. Her solution was to capture the water from the rain spouts on nearby buildings and use it to water the plants. This simple solution saved all of the gardeners a lot of work fetching water for the plants. Finally, the book teaches us not to judge other people. There are a couple of instances in the book where one neighbor judged another’s actions without really knowing that person or what they were doing, and it turned out that they were wrong. This book illustrates the danger of assuming things about people you don’t know and the problems it can cause. Another reason I recommend reading Seedfolks is because of the inspiring messages in the book. This story of how a disconnected community is transformed into a friendlier place as the result of neighbors working together in a community garden shows that little things can make a big difference. We should always do what we can to make a difference, even if the difference is small. The story also shows that when we cooperate with one another and work together, we can all benefit. Reading this book made me want to make connections with other people in my neighborhood and start a garden of our own.I give Seedfolks four stars because I appreciate the interesting characters, important life lessons and inspiring messages I found in this book. I would have given it five stars if the chapters were more connected and the story were a bit more complex. I recommend this book to adolescents and adults looking for a quick read that will make a big impression on them. I suggest that parents read this book before deciding whether or not it is appropriate for their children as some of the topics in the book are controversial. I hope more readers will pick up this book and get inspired to plant some seeds in their own neighborhood.
Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman is a short novel with different chapter or character .I would like to recommend the book for all readers,it contains many important ideas from each chapter.for example it is a good example of making change, it has very interesting and inspiring issue or culture,and the neighborhood's cooperative or unity help to me to like their way of connection. When you read seedfolks you will see a big change in different way for example change of vacant lot to garden ,change of love story ,change of relation between people ,and economical change .So all the changes are a good example for our life change. When anyone wants to make a change you can learn from the book . It has very interesting and inspiring issues and cultures.from each,chapter different people came up with different issues and cultures from all over the world.We don't even know before .For example their own plant ,their way of planting ,the use of the plant and their believe .These indicate everyone has at least one thing different from another.So we can share or learn from the book .We don't need to go to their country to learn from them .The book is very close to us . After all the information mentioned in the book ,the most important idea,when the neighborhood made the change ? The answer in the book is brief but the mystery of the change was cooperative or unity and their conversation tied us together.In fact the book is a good example of unity ,it has different chapters with different ideas ,different people from all over the world but with the same goal.I think that Paul Fleischman show for us how unity is a power , unity is a strength and success. i finished reading Seedfolks ,I give it four stars because i appreciate It is a good example of making a change ,i enjoyed the interesting and inspiring issues or cultures and i learned the mystery of unity from the neighborhood .I would have given five stars if it would be more suspense ,more curious character and more connected character.I recommend Seedfloks for all readers, but i strongly recommend for parents they always try to teach a good thing, they can learn from their children too. I hope everybody will enjoy reading this book.
What do You think about Seedfolks (2004)?
In a rundown neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio, a young Vietnamese girl becomes a catalyst for authentic, grassroots change. In an attempt to captivate the spirit of the father she never knew, Kim plants lima beans in a vacant lot, amidst the rat nests and broken car parts. And then the neighbors notice. They do the same, and discover the power of growing, building, and changing something for the better. Okay, it's a little saccharine. But my students liked it, and I think there needs to be a little more of that vibe in the classroom sometimes. Buy this title from Powell's Books.
—Jordan
“Seedfolks” by Paul Fleischman is a short novel about a vacant lot which connected a community. I wouldn’t recommend that story to other readers. The story focused on new characters in separated chapters. The author didn’t repeat the previous characters. There is also no ending about how the community was connected.First of all, the story has many different characters with different cultures and they all have a separate story with their own reasons to start planting something in the vacant lot. For instance, each character’s story just dropped after it was told. The characters in the story were disconnected. The author also didn’t dig deep into character’s care for others in the garden.Second, the author didn’t repeat the previous characters to make the reader curious and that feels unfair. For example, the story began with Kim who is the little Vietnamese girl started planting lima beans in the vacant lot. However, as reading I can’t find any more information about her. I wonder how she feels about the vacant lot after it became a big garden for everybody. Besides that, I also want to know more about how people in the story feel about each other and how the vacant lot changed their neighborhood.The story ends with one of the characters without a summary about how the vacant lot brings the community together. In my opinion, the author left the story half done. As I read it , I expected to find out whether Curtis won back Lateesha’s heart with his tomatoes or how Maricela changed herself after being a part of the garden. In contrast, the author didn’t mention it and that made me curious and I feel uncomfortable about that.In conclusion, I wouldn’t recommend the story for other readers who love to read a long novel with connected characters. Seedfolks focused on different characters with separated chapter. The story also did not go back to previous characters and didn’t even show how they feel about the garden and other people in the garden. For me, I feel like the author left the story half done with no summary at the end of the story.
—Tu Nguyen
This book is fantastic! Told from the viewpoint of several different community members from various backgrounds, it is the story of a community pulling together to overcome racism, stereotypes, and social injustice. It all begins with a Vietnamese girl who goes to the abandoned lot to plant a bean seed and an elderly white woman who thinks she's hiding drugs and goes down to investigate. When she discovers that the girl was actually planting seeds, she feels so horrible that she starts helping her take care of them. This starts a chain reaction that ends in a community garden representing several different cultures and teaching a diverse group of people to get past their prejudices and work together to improve their neighborhood. It's short, easy, and wonderfully written.
—Stephanie Hawkins
