characters, drama and suspense. So what is it about? It's about a community garden that has been created in the middle of an urban area, and how that garden brings members of a community together to become a family.

While this hasn't been one of my favorite reads, Seedfolks shares some interesting insights in human behavior, as well as teaches us things about ourselves that isn't always pleasant or pretty. For example, in the chapter about Amir, the character runs into another character in his store, and she called him a "dirty foreigner." He runs into her again in the garden and asks her if she remembers that day. She apologized over and over, telling him "'Back then, I didn't know it was you...'"
While my younger students wouldn't understand the story, third through fifth-graders should. I would enjoy doing a character study with them. I would have students broken up into different groups. Each group would take one character and research that character's background. Then, we would come back together with our findings so each group could tell the class what they discovered about each character. I would also like to pair this with a gardening activity of our own, having the classroom work on a small garden together.
While I'm still unsure about the book, I will admit that it makes you stop and think, and not just about yourself. It makes you think about others. It makes you think about how well we know the people that we see, but don't necessarily interact with daily.
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