Customer Reviews

A Child's Garden: A Story of Hope

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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.

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.