A Child's Garden: A Story of Hope [Hardcover]

Michael Foreman (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 3 and up | Grade Level: P and up

For a boy in a warravaged world, nurturing a fragile vine has far reaching effects in this simple, universal fable of hope and connection.

A little boy’s home has been reduced to ruin and rubble, and now a wire fence and soldiers separate him from the streams and hills he once visited with his father. But the boy sees a tiny speck of green peeping up toward the sunlight, and he quietly begins to coax it with water and care. What sort of promise can a vine’s spreading tendrils bring to a bleak landscape? A beautifully illustrated tale of healing and renewal from a world-acclaimed children’s book creator, A Child’s Garden pays gentle tribute to the human spirit.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In the ravaged rubble where he lives behind a heavily guarded barbed-wire fence, a boy finds a tiny green sprout. Nurturing the vine, he watches it grow into a vibrant oasis, until it is destroyed by soldiers from the other side. Then, in spring, green shoots reappear. Together, the boy and a girl on the other side of the fence cultivate the vines and create a glorious, shared garden. The overt symbolism carries through to the boy’s closing thoughts: “Let the soldiers return . . . Roots are deep, and seeds spread . . . One day the fence will disappear forever.” Foreman’s expertly shaded pencil-and-watercolor illustrations deepen the story’s heavy messages of war and peace, moving from grim, gray-toned scenes to a vibrantly colored, idealistic spread depicting a long trail of happy kids winding into flower-strewn hills. Children will likely need to discuss the disturbing images of wire, ruins, and armed men, but they’ll connect with the young characters’ powerful ability to transform their wasted landscape and envision a joyful, harmonious world. Grades K-3. --Gillian Engberg

Review

"* "It's absolutely perfect. Please trust me that it's a book you'll want to read, and want to read with your children. It matters." thebookbag.co.uk" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick; 1 edition (May 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763642711
• ISBN-13: 978-0763642716
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 0.4 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,457,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Startling Fable of Restoring the World's Color and Hope One Seed at a Time, May 30, 2009

By 

David Crumm "Editor of ReadTheSpirit magazine" (Canton, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Child's Garden: A Story of Hope (Hardcover)

Candlewick Press is giving us a beautiful, brand-new vision of gardening as a metaphor for nurturing world peace. It all starts one seed at a time, one vine at a time, one set of friends at a time.

What I love about Foreman's new picturebook is that it echoes conflict zones around the world. The little boy who begins the story in a dark, rubble-strewn hovel could be living in regions of eastern Europe now--or perhaps back during World War II. He could be living in the Middle East or in a Latin American conflict zone. It's a startlingly beautiful fable that could be set many places around the world.

The whole point in exploring the pages of "A Child's Garden" is to see the black-white-and-gray hopelessness give way to the brilliant colors of vines, flowers, friends and eventually songbirds, too!

As is the case with most Candlewick books, I think Foreman's new story is just masquerading as a children's book. I'd buy it for yourself, for good friends, for any children you know. Read it with anyone who cares about peace and needs a few colorful rays of hope in this ominous springtime of turbulent change.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children, October 26, 2009

By 

Yana V. Rodgers "econkids.rutgers.edu" (New Brunswick, NJ) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Child's Garden: A Story of Hope (Hardcover)

A young child lives in an area ravaged by war, with a large, ominous barbed-wire fence that separates the ruins where he lives from the nice village and lovely hills on the other side. Anyone could feel utter despair to live under such conditions, but the boy sees hope in a small green sapling that he finds growing in the rubble. He waters and nurtures the plant as it transforms into a splendid grapevine that covers the barbed wire and attracts butterflies, songbirds, and other children. Although the soldiers from the other side destroy the vine, they are no match for the resilience of children, the depth of plant roots, and the power of the wind to spread seeds.

This inspiring book, which follows in the tradition of Michael Foreman's earlier Mia's Story, provides a clear lesson about hope in the face of scarcity and conflict. Both these books are top-notch choices for teaching children about the insidiousness of extreme poverty and the importance of thinking about solutions for a way out.