Review Detail

Who knew gardening could produce more than just produce? Thanks to Paul Fleischman’s "Seedfolks," I now get that.

"Seedfolks" follows the story of a trash heap turned community garden started by a small Vietnamese girl. Normally, I wouldn’t think it’s important to reference a character’s race in a blog post, but that’s essentially what this book is all about: race relations. Fleischman looks at the racial stereotypes we all bring to the table, and shows how a group project can turn those stereotypes around.

After Kim, the Vietnamese girl, gets cracking on growing some lima beans in the dirty lot used as a trash can, an entire apartment complex soon comes together to clear the place out and plant flowers and veggies of their own. The gardeners come from all backgrounds: some are white, some are black, some are Korean, some are Jewish, some are Persian, some are young, others are old, etc., etc., etc. Pretty soon the place turns into a beautiful paradise in the middle of Cleveland, Ohio, kept after by once disparate groups who have become a family.

The best and heaviest quote from the story comes from the perspective of Amir, an Indian man who runs a fabric store and has his own plot in the garden. Once he feels close enough to his Polish neighbor through the shared task of gardening, he tells the woman that she called him a dirty foreigner in his shop when they had a dispute about giving change. Amir recalls, “She apologized to me over and over again. She kept saying, ‘Back then, I didn’t know it was you….’” I think the moral of the story is we can use "Seedfolks" to plant a seed in others about ending stereotypes.