★★★★
The word “paradise” came out of my mouth, without thinking.
An old Romanian woman keeps a keen eye on the neighborhood.
Her suspicious glance falls upon a young Vietnamese girl squatting in a vacant lot, poking at the ground.
Upon further inspection, she realizes that the young girl was planting lima bean seeds.
You have to have faith, especially in Cleveland.
Soon the entire community starts to notice – and the little garden begins to spread and the community will be forever changed.
This book was such a delightful surprise.
I feel like it can be SO hard to balance so many perspectivesin a single story but Fleischman managed them all beautifully.
Each person was completely distinct and brought their own culture to the story.
Towards the end, it became a smidge difficult to remember who was who (mostly because each time we changed perspectives, the side characters would change names – i.e. the young Vietnamese girl was referred to Asian or other names)
All in all, I was impressed and enjoyed this story immensely!
Audiobook Comments
This was narrated by a full cast and wow – that was a treat to listen to. So many wonderful narrators brought this book to life.
Interested in this one from Paul Fleischman? Buy it here: Amazon
Miranda Reads 