Green Green: A Community Gardening Story - Hardcover

Lamba, Marie; Lamba, Baldev

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374327971 ISBN 13: 9780374327972

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2017

Synopsis

Green grass is wide and fresh and clean for a family to play in, and brown dirt is perfect for digging a garden. But when gray buildings start to rise up and a whole city builds, can there be any room for green space? The neighborhood children think so, and they inspire the community to join together and build a garden for everyone to share in the middle of the city.

About this title

About the Authors

Marie Lamba is author of the contemporary young adult novel What I Meant… (Random House), which Publisher’s Weekly called “an impressive debut.” She is also author of the contemporary YA novel Over My Head and of the paranormal YA Drawn. Marie’s work appears in the short story anthology Liar Liar (Mendacity Press and Blackstone Audio), the anthology Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering (Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing), and her articles are in more than 100 publications including national magazines such as Writer’s Digest, Garden Design and RWR. She has worked as an editor, an award-winning public relations writer, and a book publicist, has taught classes on novel writing and on author promotion, and belongs to The Liars Club. Marie is also an Associate Literary Agent at The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency. She lives in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

Baldev Lamba, coauthor of Green Green, is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Temple University and an award-winning landscape architect who is one of the designers of The First Ladies Water Garden on the National Mall in Washington, DC. His articles have appeared in numerous publications including Landscape Architecture Magazine, Garden Design Magazine and Hort Technology. A long-time advocate of sustainability, Baldev has presented this topic at conferences around the world. As principal of the landscape architecture firm Lamba Associates, Inc. he has worked with numerous inner city groups to create community gardens and urban parks, always with an eye toward sustainability. Among Baldev’s recent projects was the PHS Pops Up Garden, which transformed a barren city block in Philadelphia into a lush urban oasis.

Sonia Sanchez is the illustrator of several books for children, including Here I Am, an Eisner award winner for illustration. Sonia lives in Barcelona, Spain.

Reviews

PreS-Gr 2—A basic introduction to community gardens for youngsters. Beginning with a lush, rural landscape with old houses, picket fences, and a young family gardening in their spacious yard, the narrative shows bulldozers arriving as "stone and metal, the city grows." Rather suddenly, viewers are in an established urban landscape of high-rise buildings and neglected, overgrown lots. Green and brown have turned to "pigeon blue and squirrel gray," though plants still peek out from "in between" pavement cracks and balcony planter boxes. The colored pencil illustrations depict a diverse cast of children and adults of all ages who see an overgrown city lot and with the repeated refrain of "Brown brown,/dig the ground" transform it into a vibrant garden. Back matter includes additional information on community gardens and pollinators as well as a butterfly craft project. The simple text pairs well with the detailed visuals, each spread packed with movement and activity. However, while the overarching theme of urban development followed by green redevelopment may be clear to adult readers, young audiences viewing the images may be confused by gaps. For example, the same family depicted gardening in the countryside at the opening of the story is shown just a few pages later, following some quick construction, on top of a building, admiring the night sky. It isn't obvious whether they moved to the city or the city sprung up around them within a very short time frame. VERDICT Though slightly marred by a confusing time line, this is nonetheless an attractive read-aloud for beginning lessons on gardening. A strong addition to most shelves.—Chelsea Couillard-Smith, Hennepin County Library, MN

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374327971
• ISBN 13: 9780374327972
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Sanchez Sonia
• Number of pages: 32