The Gardener [Paperback]

By the author-and-illustrator team of the bestsellingThe 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 Gardeneris a 1997 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and a 1998 Caldecott Honor Book.

Husband and wife duoSarah StewartandDavid Smallhave worked together on several picture books, includingThe Friend,The Money Tree, andThe Library.The Gardeneris a Caldecott Honor book. Small has also illustrated other books, including the 2001 Caldecott Medal winnerSo You Want to Be President?, by Judith St. George. Stewart and Small live in a historic home on a bend of the St. Joseph River in Michigan.

Late in the summer of 1935, Lydia Grace's parents are out of work, and to help make ends meet they send Lydia Grace to live with Uncle Jim, a baker in the city...Told entirely through letters, the story radiates her utterly (and convincingly) sunny personality...[An] inspiring offering from creative collaborators. Starred, Publishers Weekly

A moving, wonderfully rich illustrated story. It is that rarity, a pictorial delight that in 20 double pages gives more and more of itself each time it's read, and whose silent complexities reveal themselves with continuing pleasure. The New York Times Book Review

Discussion Questions

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