The Gardener
Author(s): Sarah Stewart
By the author-and-illustrator team of the bestselling The 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 Gardener is a 1997 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and a 1998 Caldecott Honor Book.
Review(s):
“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
Long-listed NYTBR Notable Children's BOTY (1997), Long-listed IRA Teachers' Choices, Winner Christopher Awards - Winner, Commended Caldecott Honor Book (1998), Long-listed School Library Best Books of the Year, School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, American Library Association Notable Children's Books (1998), Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books of the Year, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Award (1997), Long-listed Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, Long-listed ALA Notable Children's Books (1998), New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Books of the Year (1997), American Library Association Notable Children's Books, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books Blue Ribbon Award, Winner BCCB Blue Ribbon Award (1997), New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Books of the Year
ISBN: 9780374325176