09 Oct / Rose’s Garden by Peter H. Reynolds
Here’s a joyful little gift to share with your children over the long weekend … you don’t have to buy the book (although you eventually should), you can click here for the “telefable” version of this gorgeous, heartwarming story that celebrates a young woman’s spunky determination and hopeful patience that ultimately builds a welcoming community.
The Kennedy men have long been the subject of endless headlines, leaving the Kennedy women eclipsed more often than not. But honoring the late Kennedy matriarch, smack in the middle of Boston, is a wide-open space called The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, 15 acres of greenland comprising gardens, plazas, and tree-lined promenades.
The latest title from Peter Reynolds (So Few of Me, Ish, The Dot) is also dedicated to Mother Kennedy, “a woman who planted her own perennial garden.” After collecting seeds from all her travels (in a floating teapot!), Rose finds the perfect patch of empty land to start her garden. By the time she’s prepared the soil, the birds have had a feast of her seeds and she has but a few left. She waits patiently for the remaining few to finally sprout, enduring the challenges of each new season, waiting with faithful patience.
Seeing her alone, one by one, a new child presents her with a homemade flower … until the garden grows and grows: “Each told a story about coming to this city … having journeyed from all over the world, like seeds carried on a breeze.” Mixed in with the children’s stories and their colorful flowers, Rose’s seeds finally flower into the mix. “Each flower, real or paper, had appeared around her because Rose believed. Her faith had gathered a garden – and the stories of a city.”
Reynolds reveals on the back flap that he, too, “came to America as an immigrant, but calls Boston his home.” In a post-9/11 America where immigrants are far too often questioned, persecuted, and just not wanted, Rose’s Garden gently reminds us that we are all a community of immigrants – even the near-mythologized Kennedys, the ultimate American family. “She was home. … Surrounded by stories and flowers. Here in Rose’s garden. Everybody’s garden.”
Readers: All
Published: 2009
I hadn’t really come across Peter Reynolds, except having seen The Dot recommended. I was, thinking about the bank balance and seeing how good his books (and Allen Say’s) look, about to reply to you “get behind me, satan” or “stop!” or something like that…
But here’s a book for the blog-visitor, moving in both senses!
Well, I guess I’ve been called worse… Satan’s an ex-angel after all, if nothing else … but I’d think about selling my soul in order to keep the REAL publishing industry alive. Give me bound paper any day! All this electronic movement scares me to pieces, that’s for sure!!!
I agree about books – paper, print, turning the pages, and who wants to go into some over-virtual world. (That said, these virtual versions are handy for showing a class of children on the whiteboard, so everyone can see clearly. Also good for showing someone on the Web. There should be a sample for these things.)
As for my “get behind me” remark – I didn’t mean you to think about – it’s the discovery of all these treasures, wanting to to get my hands on them now…
You make a very important point about easy access for many … Especially in places where one connected computer can serve so very many.
We who are lucky and privileged enough to choose our mediums are truly blessed indeed … devilishly so!