The Gardener (Caldecott Honor Award) [Hardcover]

Sarah Stewart (Author), David Small (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Series: Caldecott Honor Book

By the author-and-illustrator team of the bestselling The Library

Lydia Grace Finch brings a suitcase full of seeds to the big gray city, where she goes to stay with her Uncle Jim, a cantankerous baker. There she initiates a gradual transformation, bit by bit brightening the shop and bringing smiles to customers' faces with the flowers she grows. But it is in a secret place that Lydia Grace works on her masterpiece -- an ambitious rooftop garden -- which she hopes will make even Uncle Jim smile. Sarah Stewart introduces readers to an engaging and determined young heroine, whose story is told through letters written home, while David Small's illustrations beautifully evoke the Depression-era setting.

The Gardener is a 1997 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and a 1998 Caldecott Honor Book.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Speaks volumes about the vast impact one small individual can make."

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2. Through her letters to her farm family, Lydia Grace tells how she brightens her uncle's dreary bakery and his disposition with a little dirt and a suitcase full of seeds.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); 1st edition (August 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374325170
• ISBN-13: 978-0374325176
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #63 in Books > Children's Books > Travel & Cultures > Where We Live > City Life

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a CLASSIC!, April 1, 2002

By 

Joegil K. Lundquist (Medina, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gardener (Sunburst Books) (Paperback)

This book has such an unexpected gut-level impact on everyone who reads it! I have read it aloud to people of all ages and there is never a dry eye in the room! Each of the short letters begins with a date which will be meaningful to anyone who lived through the depression. Oddly enough, disasters and hard times seem to bring out the best in people and this book sets out to show just how that is true. Lydia Grace Finch is such a universally loveable little character - she is unforgettable! The text and the illustrations are so perfectly suited to each other - they seem to have been created by the same person -but they aren't! (Just a "marriage of true minds" I guess.)The book gets at the heart of what a family can give a child even without money - what it means to be poor and what it means to be rich.
This is a lovely gift book for children or adults and I hope it stays in print for a long, long time!

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Passion for Flowers, April 11, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Lexington Park, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gardener [With Hardcover Book] (Audio Cassette)

"April showers bring May flowers." Sarah Stewart's The Gardener brings us the winsome story of a young flower lover, Lydia Grace Finch. Forced by the hard times of the Depression, Lydia leaves her family to go to the unfamiliar city to stay with her Uncle Jim, an unsmiling baker. While traveling by train, Lydia writes to Uncle Jim, admitting she knows nothing about baking, but a lot about gardening. In Lydia's subsequent letters to her Mama, Papa, and Grandma we discover just what Lydia thinks of the city, subdued Uncle Jim, and learning to bake bread. David Small's pen and ink drawings with their softly hued watercolor washes fill the large pages with detailed views of Lydia's adventure. Where in the big gray city can Lydia ever grow all the seeds and bulbs her Grandma sends her? Will Lydia ever coax a smile from Uncle Jim? Read Lydia's charming letters to find out how one determined slip of a girl brightens her city corner of the grim 1930's world.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Retired? Never!!, June 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gardener (Caldecott Honor Award) (Hardcover)

As a first year teacher, I am constantly looking for new literature to share with my children. The Reading Specialist at my school shared this book with me as part of our preparations for a retirement luncheon for our principal. Our principal, also an avid gardener, truly brought light and love to those she contacted in her 30+ years with our school district. I cried with the Reading Teacher when she showed me this book, and then eagerly ran out and bought the book for myself. When I shared it with my children later that week, they were all moved by Lydia Grace's courage and love as much as I was. This book reached my class and I on many different levels. The students, being a little younger than Lydia, learned about a time long gone, and what children in the past had to do for their families. We talked about sacrifices that had to be made, and making the best of what seems at first to be a bad situation. I am so glad I was able to share this book with so many different types of people. This book has touched many lives.