What a wonderful way of taking a cranky, unlikable character and slowly providing enough backstory about so readers can find empathy and warmth for him. Recommended to anyone looking for hopeful stories about improving urban spaces, or about diverse communities working together. As an added bonus, the author/artist includes an afterword in which she offers some advice to young readers who might want to start a community garden in their own neighborhood. I enjoyed DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan's narrative here, I appreciated the fact that the reader is led to have greater empathy for the initially unlikable Old Man Hammer, over the course of the story, and I found the color artwork appealing. Even grouchy Old Man Hammer, who initially holds out and refuses to have any part in the new garden, eventually plants some seeds.Ī wonderful exploration of the idea of communal city gardens, and reclaiming vacant lots as urban green spaces, City Green reminded me a bit of Peter Brown's The Curious Garden, which also features the theme of making cities greener. After renting the land from the city, the would-be gardeners begin the clean-up, finding that people stop to help, and bring supplies as well. Saddened by the empty lot on her block, where a building used to stand before it was condemned and destroyed, young Marcy and her elderly neighbor Miss Rosa begin a community garden there, eventually involving everyone in the neighborhood in the project.
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