Uncle John's City Garden

by Bernette Ford, Frank Morrison (Illustrator)

Overview

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.


A Smithsonian Magazine Best Children's Book of the Year
A BCCB Blue Ribbon Book
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823456932
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	03/18/2025
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	7.75(w) x 11.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Bernette Ford is the co-author of the ground-breaking bestseller, Bright Eyes, Brown Skin. She is also author of the bestselling Ballet Kitty series, No More Diapers for Ducky, and for Holiday House, First Snow. She is highly regarded in the children's book community, and particularly in the African American children's book community. Uncle John’s City Garden, inspired by her uncle’s urban garden, is her first book with Holiday House.

Before becoming a children’s book illustrator, Frank Morrison was a graffiti artist and break dancer. While on tour in Europe, he visited the Louvre, where paintings by the Masters inspired him to take his art in a new direction. Frank has won a Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award, a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor, a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a Society of Illustrators Original Art Silver Medal. Uncle John’s City Garden is his first book for Holiday House.

Editorial Reviews

★ "Capturing the togetherness as well as the wonder of working side by side in the garden, brown faces glisten and elongated limbs rise up toward the sun, just as the garden itself rises. . . . . An inviting story that is also a fine example of using everyday life to exemplify science and success. A joy to experience!"—Booklist, Starred Review

"This visually lush story paints a memorable, sensory-rich portrait of family bonding through gardening"—The Horn Book

"The madly saturated colors of picture-perfect plants bring vibrancy, and the body language of the siblings is both sturdy and dynamic."—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Aptly partnered, the creators present a moving picture of how food can bind people and communities."—Publishers Weekly

"Ford’s lovingly remembered autobiographical tale highlights the power of urban gardening to foster community, revive decaying property, create food resiliency, and even promote STEM learning. The figures in Morrison’s oil-and–spray-paint paintings emote pride and quiet joy, challenging the negative association between African American people and farming."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

03/28/2022

Three Black siblings assist Uncle John, “a great big man,” with a veggie patch in this warm intergenerational portrait. Narrated from the perspective of youngest sibling Li’l Sissy, the book is based on the late Ford’s own uncle, who, per an author’s note, cultivated a similar plot in 1950s Canarsie, Brooklyn. With personal-feeling prose that centers themes of relative size and growth through life’s seasons, Li’l Sissy describes how, under Uncle John’s tutelage, she and her brother and sister plant corn, lima beans, tomatoes, onions, and okra—the ingredients for succotash, a family favorite—in a city housing development’s garden and spend the summer watching it grow until a season’s-end barbecue. Emphasizing the quartet’s kinship and pride in their work, Morrison’s distinguished oil and spray-paint art also juxtaposes expansive planes to portray the sizable horizontal garden plot amid the community’s vertical buildings. Aptly partnered, the creators present a moving picture of how food can bind people and communities. Back matter includes an author’s note and succotash recipe. Ages 4–8. (May)

Publishers Weekly

2022-01-12
In this swan song from one of children’s publishing’s pioneers, a young girl nicknamed Li'l Sissy and her siblings are recruited by their uncle to grow a garden in an inner-city housing project.

Narrating in the first person, the girl shares that when they first arrived at Uncle John's Garden “there were no plants yet—just dirt.” Readers see a barren plot of land surrounded by monotonous chains of tall brick buildings. Uncle John, a physical giant of a man, tills the land and labels the garden rows with plant markers, then the children dig holes, plants seeds, and water the plantings. In the following weeks, they visit the garden almost daily—there are weeds to pull and bugs to chase away—and revel in the wonder of sprouting shoots and budding flowers. When a huge storm arrives, there is high tension as the children wonder if their garden will be destroyed in the raging weather. Thankfully, all is well, and a fine harvest ensues throughout the summer. Young readers will feel the siblings’ sense of accomplishment as they share the garden’s produce at a big family barbecue. Ford’s lovingly remembered autobiographical tale highlights the power of urban gardening to foster community, revive decaying property, create food resiliency, and even promote STEM learning. The figures in Morrison’s oil-and–spray-paint paintings emote pride and quiet joy, challenging the negative association between African American people and farming. All characters are Black.

A simple, lovely story about the power of blooming where you are planted. (Picture book. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews