This is a story about a girl, Lydia Grace, living during the depression. Her father lost his job, her mother is not getting any orders for her dress making business so they send her to the city to live with her uncle who owns a bakery. The story is written via letters to her Uncle Jim and back to her parents and grandmother. She takes the train by herself and she is happy when she sees the apartment has window boxes just for her to fill with flowers. She read seed catalogs during the winter and she got bulbs for Christmas from her grandmother. The uncle works hard and never seems to smile. Lydia Grace learns to knead bread and starts helping at the bakery after school. One day she finds a secret place at the top of fire escape staircase and she has plan for it. All the seeds she started are staring to sprout. It is spring now. She receives in the mail a pile of dirt with small plants that her grandmother sends from her yard. The window boxes are filled with blossomed flowers. She surprises her uncle and has him come up to the top of the roof where she has many plants growing everywhere. The uncle makes a special cake and he doesn't smile but Lydia says there are 1,000 smiles in that cake. She just gets the letter that it is time for her to come home because her father got a job. This is a nice story showing how plants can get ones mind off of bad times and helps people get through the bad time easier.

I picked this book for the book talk because it was a newbery award honor book and several librarians had recommended it and it got "A" reviews in the Horn Book, Book List and School Library journal. The story is uplifting and shows the magical power of plants and what they can do for the living environment especially a sterile one like a city. It shows what the love of gardening can do to transform a time and a place and a person.

I would use this book to discuss family dynamics of this family and the hardships they went through in 1935 and 1936 and how the plants made a difference in an inexpensive way.

It is an excellent book!