SECRET GARDENERS

Three young city dwellers help create a community garden.

While spying on their neighbors, Bianca, Luna, and Billy accidentally break through a fence into the overgrown backyard of an abandoned house. They recognize a woman named Amy, who wants to plant a no-dig garden. With their parents’ permission, the children join in. Other helpers, some of whom are transplants from other countries, contribute labor and expertise and begin to form a community. A trip to a beekeeper adds interest and excitement (plenty of facts on bees are included, too). The kids share the bounty of vegetables and fruit and build a treehouse. When a proposed parking garage threatens the garden, Luna’s sleuthing and some activism result in a happy ending for the community. The text is in a small font (and even smaller in the carefully labeled and laid out colored sidebars), making it a better option for solo or one-on-one reading than for storytime. Nevertheless, readers will come away with plenty of insights about gardening, though some details (such as the growing of black currants) in this Swedish import are specific to northern Europe. Sunny colored pencil-crayon drawings brim with information; the pages can be crowded, but they are never busy. Bianca is brown-skinned; Amy, Luna, and Billy are light-skinned; the community is diverse.

A nimble combination of mystery, activism, and gardening instruction.