Uncle John's City Garden by Bernette G. Ford, illustrated by Frank Morrison

 

Uncle John's City Garden by Bernette G. Ford,

illustrated by Frank Morrison

Holiday House, 2022, 40 pages

It used to be that if you traveled around NYC and I mean the outer boroughs as well as Manhattan, you would see lots of empty lots converted into city gardens, growing plants, flowers, and/or vegetables. You don't see them so much anymore because, well, developers have turned them into overpriced high rises. Which is one of the reasons I just love this last book by Bernette Ford, who sadly passed away in 2021. In her Author's Note, Ford explains that growing up in projects in Canarsie, Brooklyn, her Uncle John received permission from the city to convert an empty lot next to one of the buildings into a garden. And though she had often visited the garden, she never worked in it. Now, however, comes this lovely intergenerational family story about her Uncle John's garden that is based in part on her life and based in part on her imagination. Because sometimes, you can go home again, at least in fiction.

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The story is narrated by Li'l Sissy, the youngest of three siblings. Each one is allowed to pick their own packets of seeds to plant after Uncle John has finished doing the digging and raking. Li'l Sissy picks okra, Brother chooses corn and lima beans, and Sister picks tomatoes and onions. Their mother laughs and says they are growing succotash. 

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After carefully planting their seed packets, the kids are hot and sweaty, but pleased with what they have accomplished with Uncle John's help. Every day, they return to the garden to weed, pick off any bugs and water their crops. And sure enough, after a few weeks, their plants have thrived but still no vegetables, just stems and leaves. 

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But after a storm, the plants have really grown tall and sure enough, the vegetables begin to appear. Soon, it is time to start picking their crops. Each day, they fill their bags with more ripened vegetables. And at the end of summer vacation, Uncle John throws a big barbeque for all the relatives, complete with succotash made from their garden vegetables, just like Mama said. And because they have a bumper crop, each family gets to take home a big bag of their own vegetables.

This gentle story about a Black family making a big contribution that helps to transform their otherwise bleak neighborhood and ultimately bring people together makes for some wonderful summer reading (but works anytime). Part of what makes this story so special are the oil and spray paint illustrations/ They are bright, bold and energetic in the foreground, but with the unadorned and almost monochromatic projects in the background, Morrison has really captured the stark contrast. And if you read carefully and pay attention to the way Li'l Sissy describes everything, you find it is also a nice lesson about relative size and growth and it begins right on the first page with a description of size relative to each gardener- small, smallest , big, biggest:

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And it continues in this vein all the way through. The shovels the kids use are sized relative to their size, the plants are described relative to Li'l Sissy's size (see the illustration of Li'l Sissy and her Mama). And I love the way the illustrations reflect the relative sizes of everything. So there is a nice STEM component to the story and if you look at the bottom of the page with the Author's Note, you will notice that this book received support from TERC, a non-profit that develops math curricula.  

Extra Bonus: there is a delicious recipe for succotash at the end of the book (something I have eaten since I was a kid growing up in Flatbush, Brooklyn).

Thank you, Sara DiSalvo for providing me with a review copy of this book.