Customer Reviews

The Gardener

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

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!

"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.

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.

There are good David Small books and there are bad David Small books. Good David Small books are usually (though by no means always) written AND illustrated by David Small himself. Bad or poorly created David Small books are usually written by someone else, using Mr. Small's talents as a kind of afterthought. The exception to this rule (and all rules, as you well know, must have exceptions) is the pairing of David Small and his wife Sarah Stewart. After creating the fabulous "Money Tree" and the bibliophilic, but somewhat disturbing, "The Library", the two combined their talents yet again to write a gentle story of love, gardening, and family.

The year: 1935, and Lydia Grace Finch is being sent from the country to go live with her Uncle Jim in the city. Lydia Grace faces this challenge with resolve and a little sadness. After all, she is leaving her family behind, the effects of the Great Depression having taken their toll. The city is a gray dirty place and Uncle Jim is kind but he never smiles. Soon, it's Spring again and Lydia has found a place to call her own (the building's abandoned roof). Her number one goal is to get Uncle Jim to smile, and she's fairly certain that the answer to this goal is just around the corner.

What Stewart and Small have accomplished here is an evocative sense of metropolitan dank and pastoral greenery. The pictures are deeply moving sometimes, and gently humorous others. One picture that particularly took by breath away was the shot of Lydia Grace standing in the train station alone. She is singled out, a blue dress wearing, green hat donning, red-haired little girl. The rest of the scene is all gray slashes of people walking in the distance and filthy light streaming through huge windows overhead. It's a gorgeous picture. Uncle Jim is just the right companion for the spunky little heroine too, looking like nothing so much as a 1930s version of Gene Shalit (sans the hair). What I appreciated most about this story was that it accepted the fact that some people in this world express their emotions and feelings differently from others. Not to give anything away, but Uncle Jim never smiles. And you wouldn't want him to either. Human beings can place importance in other things, like hard work and discipline. Uncle Jim is one such person.

If I have any objections to this book at all, it comes at the expense of Lydia Grace herself. This is a wonderful character and a great gal, this is not a child. David Small has, for reasons best known to himself, drawn a girl that looks like nothing so much as a shrunken adult. I've never had this objection to any of Mr. Small's characters before, so it was a bit of a shock to me to have such an objection now. Just the same, the eloquent story and excellent evocative scenes more than make up for a flaw that, let's admit it, probably only I could see.

Gardeners get short shrift in books, especially books for kids (unless you count stories like, "The Carrot Seed"). In this particular case, I think anyone,regardless of whether or not they can tell a petunia from a tulip, will enjoy this book. Its pace is a little slower and quieter than that found in other picture books, but for some kids it's just the right combination of simplicity and sweetness.

Lydia Grace Finch has been sent to to the city to live with her Uncle Jim while her family struggles with hard times. Uncle Jim does not smile and Lydia Grace finds the big city very, very big. Soon she is able to make friends with the workers at her uncle's bakery and the neiighbors in her building. With a child's enthusiasm and optimism, Lydia works to bring a little bit of the farm back home to her new city home. She also hopes to see a smile cross her Uncle Jim's face one day. Slowly, she is able to transform the roof of her apartment into a magical place and win that coveted smile. Sarah Stewart has written a delightful story of a child's optimism and the power of a smile. Davis Small's illustrations are garenteed to bring a smile to your face. A wonderful book to read aloud.

I read this through three times before handing it over begrudgingly to my niece and her cousin. She's 4 and the cousin is 5. Most of it went right over her head, but the 5-year old seemed to pick up on the plot a little. It really grows with re-reads, so if your child really likes to hear the same story over and over again, there's enough detail and complexity to not bore you to death. A cute idea of regenerating a inner city building in disrepair, and coming out of the depression with hope and love. I think it reads well on both levels - there's a surface story that kids can get into and more interesting elements for adults.

I absolutely love this book! My 5 year old son and I planted a garden this year and I wanted to find a book that helped to reinforce the concept of gardening as not only fun but as a way of bringing beauty and joy into people's lives. I found it with this book. In fact, I read it several times by myself before even reading it to my son and, even after numerous readings, the ending never fails to bring tears to my eyes. I've also been sharing this story with my adult friends and it has touched each one.

The list of childrens' books that are wonderful to look at, contain a meaningful, warm story and whose words come smoothly off the tongue is all too short. This book has been a hit at my house for a long time now. My kids love a reading at bedtime and even though they often are asleep before the book is through, I'll read it all the way to the end--out loud--for myself! A winner.

The time of this story takes place in the mid 1930s and the family of the little girl of the story has had some hard times as so many families did during those horrible years. Briefly, the little girl is sent to live with her uncle Jim in the city until her father can find work and get the family back on thier feet. The author has chosen to tell this story via letter written back home to the little girl's family, by the girl herself. The story is through her eyes. The story is excellent, as it points out just what one person, even a little one, can do to change people lives. The running theme throughout of course is the little girls love for gardening. I certainly will not go into a blow by blow account of the plot, etc. as that has been done here several times, and done quite well. The text though, is quite readable and the illustrations are great. One other theme, other than the gardening, that runs through the story, is the fact that the little girl seems to be quite concerned over the fact that uncle Jim never smiles. In the end....well, you will have to read the story yourself, does he or does he not smile...you figure it out! Love this book and recommend it highly.

We purchased this book for our 5 year old daughter several months ago and it has becomer her favorite. The illustrations are truely wonderful and even after dozens of readings we still keeping finding new things in book. My favorite part is that the illustrations tell the story as much as the letters. Not everything is directly spelled out for you and this allows a wonderful sense of discovery to occur as you read the book over and over. Definitely not to be missed.