Bernette Ford (1950–2021)

Goodreads Review:
How does this city garden grow? With help from L’il Sissy and her siblings--and love, love, love! A celebration of nature, family, and food.

Visiting the city from her home in the suburbs, an African American girl sees how a few packets of seeds, some helping hands, and hard work transform an empty lot in a housing project into a magical place where vegetables grow and family gathers. It’s the magic of nature in the heart of the city!

Bernette Ford’s autobiographical story is a loving glimpse at a girl, her siblings, and her uncle, and their shared passion for farming. L’l Sissy’s fascination with measurement, comparison, and estimation introduces children to STEM concepts. And the progress of Uncle John’s garden introduces readers to the life cycle of plants.

Frank Morrison, winner of multiple Coretta Scott King awards and an NAACP Image Award, depicts dramatic cityscapes as well as the luscious colors and textures of Nature.… (meer)

I liked this book because of the plot and illustrations. The plot is fast paced which keeps readers engaged. As soon as little red riding hood leaves her house, she meets the big bad wolf which is when the rising action starts. Then before you know it the wolf swallows her grandmother and tries to swallow little red ridding hood, which is the climax. The book ends with a woodsman saving both her and her grandmother and everyone lives happily ever after. The illustrations are also engaging. There are multiple illustrations on most pages, which helps to keep readers interested. For example on page 5 there are 4 illustrations. Overall the moral of this book is not to talk to strangers. If little red ridding hood ignored the big bad wolf, no chaos would have been caused.… (meer)