40 Fun Facts About Seedfolks

In Seedfolks, what does Kim plant in a vacant lot to feel close to the father she never knew?

Lima beans from the kitchen are what Kim buries, hoping that her father, a farmer in Vietnam who died before her birth, will see them grow.

In Seedfolks, what does Leona open in a city health office to make officials notice her?

A bag of garbage from the lot stinks so badly that Leona, stonewalled through two days of phone calls, is shown into a meeting almost at once.

In Seedfolks, what does Ana buy after digging up Kim's secret and seeing she misjudged the girl?

Binoculars let Ana watch over the little garden from her window, and when the plants wilt she sends a neighbor down to water them.

In Seedfolks, what does Ana, watching from her window, assume Kim is burying in the vacant lot?

Drugs or a gun is her guess because Ana spent twenty years as a typist for the Parole Department and expects the worst of her neighbors.

Which Ohio city, long a magnet for immigrant workers, is the setting of Seedfolks?

Cleveland suited the book because it was famous for its immigrants in the past and still takes in newcomers, and because its harsh white winters make green precious.

In Seedfolks, which crop does Virgil's father plant, hoping to sell it to fancy restaurants?

Baby lettuce wilts in summer heat, which Virgil's father learns only after claiming far more ground than anyone else in the garden.

In Seedfolks, which crop does Curtis raise where Lateesha can see it from her window?

Tomatoes are Lateesha's favorite, and Curtis tends them in plain view to show that he has grown up since she left him five years before.

In Seedfolks, what does Sae Young buy for the garden, two years after a robbery made her fear people?

Funnels let the gardeners pour water into their own containers without spilling, and watching neighbors use them makes her feel she belongs.

The title Seedfolks is an old word that its author saved in a notebook for years, meaning what?

Ancestors is the old meaning, and in the last chapter Florence uses the word for the great-grandparents who first planted her family in a new place.

In Seedfolks, which of Amir's vegetables gets neighbors who never spoke to him to stop and chat?

Eggplants of a pale purple, a color nothing else in the garden had, gave neighbors an excuse to start talking to a man they had only passed.

Which road in Seedfolks, home to the vacant lot, once divided Black and white neighborhoods?

Gibb Street became the border between the Black and white parts of town, Ana recalls, before the factories closed and nearly everyone left.

In Seedfolks, which kitchen utensil does Kim use to dig six holes in the cold, hard ground?

A spoon from the kitchen drawer is the only tool Kim carries to the lot, and Ana later digs in the same spot with a butter knife.

In Seedfolks, Ana's parents came from which country, whose emigrants once filled her block?

Romania sent the first families Ana remembers from her arrival in 1919; Slovaks, Italians and Black families followed as each group moved on.

In Seedfolks, what is the job of Wendell, who says he spends his whole week being bossed around?

A school janitor, Wendell is recognized in the lot by Gonzalo, who knew him from his old school.

In Seedfolks, Wendell recognizes Kim's wilting plants because he grew up on a farm in which state?

Kentucky farm life is why Wendell can name the plants at a glance and knows to bank a ring of soil around each one to hold water.

In Seedfolks, Wendell sees that which piece of junk saved Kim's seedlings by reflecting sunlight?

A refrigerator dumped in the lot bounced the sun onto the soil and warmed it, and it also hid Kim from the sidewalk while she dug.

In Seedfolks, which sound makes Wendell jump, because it twice brought news of a family tragedy?

A ringing phone is how Wendell learned that his son had been shot and that his wife had died in a car wreck, so Ana's wake-up call terrifies him.

In Seedfolks, what mistake does Wendell say Kim made, so that her seeds were lucky to sprout at all?

Planted too early, in a cold April, the seeds lacked the hot weather they need, yet they sprouted, and Ana insists on saving them.

In Seedfolks, what does Wendell bring home from work after deciding to change one patch of earth?

A shovel from work lets Wendell dig the sunny spot he has already cleared of garbage and broken glass, making him the second gardener in the lot.

In Seedfolks, Gonzalo and his great-uncle Tío Juan came to the United States from which country?

Guatemala is where Tío Juan was the oldest man in his village and a farmer; in his new city he cannot work or even talk with strangers.

In Seedfolks, what does Tío Juan do with the lot's soil before he chooses where to plant?

He tastes it after studying the sun, and Gonzalo, embarrassed at first, realizes that his great-uncle knows everything about growing food.

In Seedfolks, which TV sitcom is Gonzalo watching when Tío Juan slips out of the apartment?

The Brady Bunch is part of how Gonzalo keeps learning; he picked up English in two years from the playground and cartoons.

In Seedfolks, which plant does Leona decide to grow in honor of the Granny who raised her?

Goldenrod went into the tea her Granny drank every morning, a habit doctors warned against; Granny outlived them all and reached ninety-nine.

In Seedfolks, Leona grew up in her Granny's house in which Southern city?

Atlanta is where young Leona went with Granny to the funerals of the doctors she outlived, laying her favorite herb on each grave.

In Seedfolks, which crop does Sam talk the teenager who digs his plot into growing to sell?

Pumpkins can be sold at Halloween, Sam argues, and unlike the marijuana the boy first had in mind they will keep him out of jail.

In Seedfolks, which Bible story does Sam recall when gardeners split by race and put up fences?

The Tower of Babel, where God divided people by language, is Sam's image for a garden sorting itself into corners behind barbed wire.

In Seedfolks, Sam spent thirty-six years working for groups that promoted which cause?

World peace was his life's work, through groups pushing world government and pacifism; retired, he mends his own neighborhood by greeting everyone.

In Seedfolks, which word does Sam tell a stranger comes from Persian and means a walled park?

Paradise slips out of Sam's mouth when he sees men in jumpsuits clearing the lot and hears that anyone may garden there.

In Seedfolks, which idea from a young girl wins Sam's contest for getting water to the garden?

Rain from downspouts, caught in cans the neighbors chip in to buy, wins the twenty-dollar prize, and a thunderstorm the next day nearly fills them.

In Seedfolks, how does Virgil's father earn a living while scheming to get rich from the garden?

Driving a taxi is how he hears, from a passenger, that expensive restaurants will pay well for a certain salad green.

In Seedfolks, what does Nora fill with soil so that Mr. Myles can garden from his wheelchair?

A plastic barrel with drainage holes cut in it lifts the soil up to her patient, whom a stroke had left silent and losing interest in life.

In Seedfolks, what suddenly quiets the block while Leona talks with pregnant teenager Maricela?

A power outage stops every machine nearby, and Leona says that plants live by sun and seasons instead, a system Maricela's body belongs to.

In Seedfolks, Amir says people in the big cities of which homeland all know their neighbors?

India is where Amir grew up, in Delhi, and after arriving in the United States in 1980 he found city people treating strangers as foes.

In Seedfolks, Amir manages what kind of business, where a customer once insulted him?

A fabric store is where an angry customer once called him a foreigner; at the harvest party the same woman praises his garden and apologizes.

In Seedfolks, the elderly Polish woman gardening beside Amir tells him that she survived what?

A concentration camp held her family after her father, an orchestra violinist, spoke out against the Germans, and Amir drops every stereotype he had heard of Poles.

In Seedfolks, Florence's great-grandparents walked from Louisiana to settle in which future state?

Colorado, reached on foot in 1859, put them as far from cotton country as they could get, and their family was the first Black one in its county.

In Seedfolks, what does Curtis give the homeless teenager Royce to scare thieves from his crop?

A pitchfork, bedding and money for food are Curtis's side of the deal, and Royce later uses it to pin a purse snatcher until police come.

Which Newbery Medal winner, the son of another children's author, wrote Seedfolks?

Paul Fleischman learned the craft at home in Santa Monica, where his father Sid read each new chapter of his own books aloud to the family.

The author of Seedfolks won the Newbery Medal for which book of insect poems for two voices?

Joyful Noise gives its duets to insects such as mayflies and honeybees, and it won two years after the author's father took the same medal.

According to its author, what sparked Seedfolks while he sat eating in a bagel shop?

A newspaper article about a local psychologist who used gardening to help her clients set him thinking; it noted that doctors in ancient Egypt prescribed garden walks.