Seedfolks

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

HarperTrophy, 2004

Seedfolks is a touching book that opens your heart and eyes to how so many people are connected in so many ways. Hearing a small passage from the life of thirteen different people, Fleischman intertwines their lives without much dialogue or direct interaction. But the way he has written this book does not call for either. You remember each character that you have read about prior, knowing who they are when another refers to them by a description of what they look like or what they are doing. 

The way the this garden brings together a community and sense of empowerment for each person, in their own way, is extremely uplifting and powerful. Each person has their own story, their own reason for wanting to start planting. Each person is planting something different to reach his or her own goal. It shows how individual people are, yet how connected at the same time.

I think this would be a great book to teach writer’s craft. Fleischman does not use much dialogue, as I said before, nor does he return to a character’s point of view after we have heard from him once before. Some people may not like this, but in a way it allows the audience to come up with their own idea of how that person has grown because of the garden.