Summary Of Seedfolks By Paul Fleischman

The novel Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman, is about A Vietnamese girl named Kim who started a garden in honor of her father, many different people joined the garden, meeting new people, and learning the importance of life. Seedfolks talks about the importance of diversity, segregation, meeting new people, and family. The book also see’s through different people's view of the world and the community garden which is located on Gibb Street in Cleveland, Ohio. In the book, a theme that occurs in everybody's perspective is family. Family is one of the most important things in life. People in Seedfolks , all mention their family and how they played a role in their lives. Family helps you be the best person you can be and influence you to do something

Another character who makes the theme of family pop out is Maricela. Maricela is a mexican 16 year old who is starting her own family. Maricela is a pregnant teenager who is left alone. Her parents are ashamed of her and now she left with no love or help(other than the teen support center). Mairicela had no choice when she joined the garden, a teen pregnancy center thought this would show the girls how the real world works. In the garden she met one person that changed her perspective on the way the world works. She had very little faith in her mothering skills until Leona, someone she met in the garden, talked some sense into her. Leona told her about how great the world is and how family is important. Maricela understood the importance of her baby at the end of her chapter when she said, “And just for that minute I stopped wishing my baby would die” (Page 57). She understands what having a family is really like now and is ready to be a mother, all because of the garden. The women who opened Maricela’s eyes is Leona. Leona is a mother of two children and Leona helped the garden by cleaning up trash. Leona grew up in Atlanta with her grandmother who always drank goldenrod tea. She saw the garden one day and saw how messy it was. After helping out the garden, by clearing the trash out, she decides to plant goldenrod in honor of her family. Overall, by cleaning the garden she helped it grow

Amir has a wife and a son and they are from India. Amir joined the garden because it reminded him of his family store, all the colors reminded him of his childhood. His family influenced him to own his own family fabric store. He also joined the garden because of how friendly everybody seemed. His son loved their part of the garden, on page 59 it quotes, “ When my wife would bring our son, he was forever wanting to pick them”. This showed his son how to garden and to meet new people. This was just one of the benefits, but the main benefit according to Amir is stated on page 59, “But the garden's greatest benefit, I feel , was not relief to the eyes, but to make the eyes see our neighbors”. He realized that meeting the new neighbors was one of the best benefits, and I believe he wanted to show his son that. When the garden threw a party where family`s were there and they were sharing food he went and got his son and wife. In my opinion, he brought them to show them what really matters and how segregation in Cleveland is