Companion Books for Silicon Valley Reads
2010
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 SeedFolks
By Paul Fleischman
About the book
Nine-year-old Kim plants lima beans in an empty, trash-filled lot as a
memorial to her Vietnamese father. Her planting is discovered by Anna, a
Rumanian immigrant who has lived on Gibbs Street in Cleveland for 70 years.
This discovery leads to the clearing of the lot and the beginning of a
community garden, which grows both plants and relationships. The immigrant
families of Gibbs Street are living in the isolation caused by poverty and
escalated by cultural and language differences. Through the voices and
dialects of 13 of the gardeners, we learn about the day-to-day life of the
inner-city poor. The walls of isolation break down among the community
members as they discuss gardening, assist each other in transporting water,
and watch over each others' precious crops. Fleischman has carefully woven
the lives of the characters with the common thread of the garden. His
succinct use of language creates physical and personality images of each
character. Children and adults will enjoy his short book. Teachers will
delight in the first-person narratives as a beginning point for writing
assignments. The book could be read aloud to classes as a starting point for
research on the problems in big cities or on the building of communities. It
will be used by social studies teachers, writing teachers, and teachers of
literature.
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 Tops
& Bottoms
Adapted and illustrated by Janet Stevens
About the book
Ages 4-7. Large, dynamic double-page-spread paintings are only part of the charm of this very funny picture book.
Easily recognizable as a trickster tale (Stevens' source note roots the story in European folktales and slave stories of the American South), this features appealing, contemporary cousins of Brer Rabbit and Brer
Bear. Here, Bear and Hare are involved in a gardening partnership, with
industrious, clever Hare reaping all the vegetable profits. As usual,
Stevens' animal characters, bold and colorful, are delightful. Hare, decked
out in a lively gardening shirt and surrounded by mischievous offspring, is
the image of determination. It's Bear, however, who wins the personality
prize: he snoozes away each planting season squashed in his favorite chair,
changing positions with each flip of the page. It's all wonderful fun, and
the book opens, fittingly, from top to bottom instead of from side to side,
making it perfect for story-time sharing.
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 Carrot Soup
By John Segal
About the book
For pre-K. Rabbit, a very organized animal, loves carrot soup. He spends the long winter
paging through carrot catalogs (a full-page spread shows the different colors, shapes, and
sizes of eight kinds of carrots). Then he plows and plants, waters and weeds, and waits.
Finally it's time to harvest, but when he goes to pick the carrots, they are all gone.
He frantically questions all the animals he knows, but not one admits to liking carrots.
"Discouraged and disappointed, Rabbit went home," where he discovered a wonderful surprise.
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