Neal Porter Books | 978-0823450831
When her grandson arrives in the early morning, the sun is rising and the mountains beside the sea “look like whale bellies.” Baba is already in the kitchen fixing a bowl of oatmeal that swims in butter, and “pickles, cabbage, and beets from the garden.”
CLICK TO ENLARGE © Words by Jordan Scott, illustrations by Sydney Smith
This quiet routine is their shared ritual. Baba doesn’t speak English well and her grandson knows that some of her ways are different from his. He has learned that her life in Poland, where she was born, was difficult. That when it rains, she walks slowly, scanning the sidewalk for worms for the garden. They share these special meals and walk back and forth to school until one day, Baba must leave her chicken-coop-home to sleep at the end of the hallway in a room right next to the boy’s.
The roles have reversed. Now it is the boy who brings oatmeal, and the boy who tends – for the first time – a small pot of tomatoes growing outside Baba’s window. It is the boy who walks slowly, eyes glued to the sidewalk, picking up each worm he finds.
MY BABA’S GARDEN, a beautifully poetic picture book collaboration by award-winning author Jordan Scott, and illustrator Sydney Smith is the second book they’ve created together and is just as lovely as their previous, I TALK LIKE A RIVER.
A profoundly moving, intergenerational story perfect for every home, classroom, and library.
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- Enjoy this Educator’s Guide for MY BABA’S GARDEN
