A HANDFUL OF SEEDS

Book ID/图书代码： 04804015B82697

English Summary/英文概要： One sad day, Grandmother died. "You cannot stay here," said the man who owned the land. "I have a family ready to move in." Young Concepcion has no choice but to move to the barrio of the nearby city. There she meets children who, in order to survive, must steal the good they eat. But Concepcion has a plan. With back-breaking work she plants a garden amid the rubble, using her grandmother’s legacy: a handful of chili, corn and bean seeds. But her garden is destroyed.

Will she have the strength to begin again?

Monica Hughes’ powerful story is complemented perfectly by the paintings of Luis Garay, a young Nicaraguan artist. Published in collaboration with UNICEF Canada, A Handful of Seeds offers a message of hope on behalf of the thirty million children worldwide who live on the streets of their cities.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 那是一个无比悲伤的一天, 奶奶溘然长逝了。“你不能住在这儿了”土地的新主人这样对年轻的康塞普松小姐说。“我和我的家人准备搬进来。” 康塞普松走投无路了, 只能搬到附近城市的一个郊区内。在那里, 她遇见了一群吃不饱饭只能每日行窃的孩子。康塞普松的脑子里正酝酿着一个计划。经过数日的辛苦劳作，她在碎石瓦砾间建起了一座花园；在刚刚翻新的泥土上， 她洒下一把辣椒、玉米和大豆种子，那是奶奶临终前递给她的。然而，她的花园在一夜间被一伙强盗所践踏了……

最后，她能够重振旗鼓吗? (Susie)

Awards/获奖情况：From Publishers Weekly

When her grandmother dies, all Concepcion possesses is a bag of beans, corn and chilies, and her grandmother’s advice: "Save enough seed for the next planting... then you will always have something to eat." With nowhere else to turn, Concepcion joins a band of orphans who live next to the dump and steal food for survival. But Concepcion plants a garden and eventually teaches the barrio children to do the same. Without sensationalizing, this tale presents a gritty picture of Latin American children living in poverty, idealizing only their instant solidarity and not their surroundings. First-time illustrator Garay’s intriguing combination of paint and cross-hatching is theatrical, posed and yet honest, akin in its tone and scope to the work of Diego Rivera. In both these masterly illustrations and in Hughes’s (Hunter in the Dark) text, the children are dignified and even heroic in their self-reliance. A bittersweet, well-crafted story, it gently opens eyes to the very different lives children lead. Ages 5-8.

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-3?Concepcion, a young Hispanic girl, is forced by her grandmother’s death to move to the barrio. There she meets a group of orphans who offer to teach her how to survive in the city by picking through garbage and stealing from merchants. Instead, she plants her corn, beans, and chilies in the hard ground to grow food the way she learned from her grandmother. One day the garden is trampled by the other children as they are being chased and beaten by the police. With the seeds that are left, they help Concepcion replant the garden, and plan to sell their surplus vegetables in the city. They have a feast and meet another gang of hungry orphans, and Concepcion gives them some of her food, seeds, and knowledge. Hughes’s well-written narrative does not hide the ugliness of life in the barrio. However, the easy resolution of Concepcion’s problems makes the story seem like a fairy tale. Nonetheless, it is a good vehicle for introducing a difficult subject, and Garay’s expressive, textured illustrations, done in rich earth tones, give it depth and feeling.?Maria Redburn, Irving Public Library, TX

From Booklist

Ages 5^-8. Concepcion lives in the country with her grandmother, where they grow beans, chilies, and corn, always, as Grandmother counsels, saving "enough seed for the next planting ... Then you will always have something to eat." But Grandmother dies, and Concepcion (who looks about nine) must move to the city. When she arrives, she is shocked to find children stealing in order to live. Remembering her grandmother’s advice, she uses the seeds she brought with her to create a garden in the barrio, replants it when it is destroyed, and uses it to help teach other children how to grow food. Hughes depicts some harrowing moments in the lives of the homeless youngsters, as when police chase and beat them, but delivers her story in a matter-of-fact tone without wallowing. The pebbly surface of the paper gives Garay’s artwork a texture appropriate to the setting, and his warm colors and fine ink details add depth. Together the text and the pictures lend insight into the difficulties faced by some children, even as they end on a (perhaps too optimistic) note of hope. Susan Dove Lempke

Conception’s grandmother has always advised her to save seed for the next planting; but now Conception must leave their shared home when her grandmother dies, moving to a crowded and ugly city which holds no place for gardens. How can she continue her grandmother’s gift and patterns of living in the barrio? Hughes paints an engaging portrait in telling of a young girl’s struggles to bring light into a bleak life. -- Midwest Book Review