Seedfolks, written by Paul Fleischman, was such a quick read! It tells the story of different people in a community planting a garden. The book is made up of short stories, each told from a different perspective. The different perspectives were the thing I enjoyed the most about this book. As I read, I recognized certain details mentioned in one story that I related back to another person’s story.
Another of my favorite aspects of the book is the pictures that relate to the text. At the beginning of each of the stories is a picture of the person whose perspective the story is coming from. Each person is different, just like the stories. Whenever I read, I like to visualize the person telling the story, so it was neat that I was provided with a picture of the person. There was also another picture on the first page of each story that related to the story. I didn’t notice this until near the end of the book, but the pictures are of vegetables the people grow, or something that they bring to the garden.
The first two stories go together really well. In the first one, a little girl is planting lima beans in the garden, and in the next story, an elderly lady sees her doing this and thinks she’s up to no good. This is a misunderstanding, just like what happens everyday between the different cultures and people in the community. This was a great metaphor to start the book out with.
One of the stories that I got the most meaning out of was Gonzalo’s story, which talks about the difficulties people have when they come to the
Another story I liked was Sae Young’s. She is a Korean woman who uses the garden as a way to come back out into the community and be with people again after a bad experience. I thought it was really interesting that her story was written in short, choppy sentences, much like I can imagine a Korean immigrant who knows only a little English would speak. This one seems to be the only story written in quite this way. I wonder why?
Because it was a collection of short stories, I was reminded of Rylant’s Van Gogh Café. I thought this was a better book than the other because all of the stories are connected to each other. I was able to recognize other community members from other people’s stories, and I was able to recognize the same events from different perspectives. Although I enjoyed this book better, I wonder if maybe children would enjoy Rylant’s book more.
3 comments:
I enjoyed the character-building aspect of the book as well as the way the author challenged the reader to think about the way those folks were connected. I kept wanting to shout at the author and suggest that all those folks start talking more together. The emphasis seemed to be on the unique blessing the garden provided for each of the folks, sometimes a small group who had interacted in some way. Personally I loved the "ah-hah" moments when I felt like celebrating with the characters the new possibilties of hope in each of their plantings. The book was all about GIVING, too. A great way to stimulate class conversations about such!
While Carolyn thought the people should start talking more, I thought that this showed a totally realistic view of a neighborhood. Sometimes people talk, mostly not. That's why natural disasters, such as Isabel here, are regarded with such strong memories--for many, that was the first time they came together with neighbors.
Like Megan, I enjoyed the small illustrations included with each chapter. About half-way through the book, I realized their signifigance and then I began to predict how each illustration would be important for the character before reading the chapter. I also enjoyed how the characters reappeared in other chapters but wanted to hear from their perspective again.
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