Green Thumbs-Up!

Friendship Garden #1

by Jenny Meyerhoff, Éva Chatelain (Illustrations)

To make a new city feel like home, Anna gets involved with a community garden—and cultivates new friendships as well as flowers and vegetables—in the first book in the Friendship Garden series.

It may be the orange and red season of fall, but eight-year-old Anna Fincher feels nothing but gray. She and her family have just moved to Chicago for her mom’s new job. Not only does Anna miss her tiny hometown and her true-blue best friends, but she misses her garden. Over the summer she and her friends had been growing big red tomatoes, bright green beans, and pink raspberries on a small plot of land in Anna’s backyard.

Now, just when it’s fall harvest time back home, Anna is stuck in a boring apartment with no yard, and starting a brand-new school with kids who are anything but friendly. Until one day Anna makes an amazing a little community garden right in the middle of the city. And a small idea begins to take root in a big way.

What if a bunch of kids took over a neglected, forgotten little garden plot? Could they make anything bloom—even friendship?

Genres: Childrens, Nature, Friendship, Middle Grade, Juvenile, School, Fiction

176 pages, Hardcover

First published August 25, 2015

About the author

"As a child in West Bloomfield, Michigan, Jenny Meyerhoff often read a book a night. In third grade, she readAre You There God? It’s Me, Margaret twenty-one times. Her first attempt at a children’s book, The Leprechaun Who Never Found a Pot of Gold, was written when she was in first grade. From that moment on, Jenny has dreamed of becoming a professional children’s book writer.

Jenny studied creative writing at the University of Michigan, and received her master’s degree in education at Northwestern University. She then became a kindergarten teacher because, in addition to loving children’s books, Jenny enjoys sitting on the floor. (That’s also why she practices yoga.)

Jenny is now a full-time writer and a full-time mom, which means that she never sleeps. She lives in Riverwoods, Illinois, with her husband and three children." (http://us.macmillan.com/author/jennym...)

Reviews

[Paddy Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

In book The friendship garden, a girl named Anna just moved to Chicago. But when her teacher Mr. Hoffman asks the students to write a persuasive speech, she meets the group she will write the speech with, she discovers a garden. When she began planting a woman which is the president of the garden sees what they are doing (trying to get a garden space) she stops them. Is she going to get the garden space?

[Kiersten · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It's a great book and it's great for young learners and it's amazing if you love gardening." - Peggy, 7yo

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anna has just moved to Chicago and needs new friends. A school project requires her to make a persuasive speech. She and a couple of other students persuade their classmates and teacher that they need to be involved in starting a gardening club. What a charming story! It almost persuaded me to have a garden of my own too!

[Efox · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a very sweet book about moving, making friends, and gardening. There were some things that I really enjoyed about this book - as a kid who moved in 6th, 8th, and 9th grade - the new school experience was pretty spot on in my experience. My kids are probably below the target audience for this book and thus their interest was lower than with some of the other books, but I could be wrong because Pumpkin Spice just came home from the library!

[Deb Aronson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really cute idea of a series. Wish I had thought of it. Just picked up the second volume.

[R Waterfall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anna is such a realistic and wonderful character, and I love how she loves to garden and wants to make friends! I would love to go to the Friendship Garden. They make it sound like a fun place! :)

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing earth-shattering, but a cute story. I'll definitely recommend it to our early chapter books readers at the library!

[Eloise Rehner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anna moved from New York to Chicago. In Anna new school they are doing persuasive speech. Anna paired with a boy and a girl named Kaya and Reed. Will keep the garden?

[kate. · Rating 4 out of 5]

such a good chapter book series to begin with
// aj's first chatper book :)

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book in the friendship garden series and box set. My oldest daughter and I read it together as part of our families summer reading challenge. It is at a perfect reading level for my daughter. Going into grade 5 she was able to read it all with a few minor corrections. When we read together we take turns and alternate pages. And even though she is a reluctant reader she loved this book. Even to the point of often asking for an extra chapter.

As can be guessed by the title this is a book about gardening and about friendship. But it is also the story about moving, getting settled in a new place and finding your place. Anna Fincher has moved to Chicago from upstate New York. It is a big change for her. New School, no yard and no garden. Then by chance she gets assigned to work with 2 classmates on a persuasive speech. While with them and the one girls grandma they begin working at the shoots and leaves community garden. She is working with Reed Madigan and Kaya Reynolds, and the speech soon becomes a goal of getting an adult to join them so they can take over an abandoned plot at the community garden.

This book has numerous illustrations by Eva Chatelain, there are a few every chapter. My daughter loved looking at all the details in some of the illustrations and they add nicely to the story.

The story was wonderfully written. My daughter really engaged with the book and since we have the box set of the first 4 we have a number more to read together. It was interesting as my daughter analysed the story, what was happening and what she thought would happen. It was fun reading about a stay at home dad and a family that moved because of the mother's career. The book kept us going and we are already well into book 2 Pumpkin Spice.

This book is great for those young readers who are struggling. The vocabulary is at an excellent level. The pace of the story is great. My youngest hearing part of the story read is also eager to have the book read to her. So all around it was a win.

In summary this is a good book, and we looking forward to more in the series.

Read the review on my blog Book Reviews and More and soon reviews of other books by Jenny Meyerhoff.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Soon after she moves from upstate New York to downtown Chicago, third grader Anna is assigned to work with classmates Kaya and Reed on a persuasive essay. After discovering that they all enjoy gardening, the three decide that encouraging their classmates to join a gardening club would be the perfect topic for their assignment. As they try to find the required adult sponsor that would make it possible for them to adopt a plot in the local community garden, Anna hopes desperately that Kaya and Reed will become her new friends.

Though the subject matter in this book - moving and making new friends - has been covered again and again at this reading level, this book is a fresh, pleasant addition to the shelf of available stories on these themes. Anna is a sympathetic character, and though she is not the most exuberant child, her unique personality comes through in small details, such as her habit of giving nicknames to things (True-Blue Besties for herself and her old friends, the Outfit-Outfit for the popular girls in her class, etc.) and her quiet desire to make a new friend. (Her hope that, while none of her classmates seems to need a new friend, they might "bump into friendship by accident," is just so endearing!) The way Anna, Kaya, and Reed interact with another is also very true to the way third graders act when they first meet one another, and the growth of their friendship as they bond over their essay assignment feels very natural and not at all forced or overly sentimental.

Green Thumbs-Up! is the perfect book for kids who are ready to start transitioning to novels, but who do not yet have an interest in the romance and mean girl plot lines of many books for tweens. Anna is not quite as memorable as a spunky character like Clementine, but for kids who are themselves quieter and more introspective, this might be a welcome change. Other friendship stories that remind me of this book include The Curious Cat Spy Club, Quinny and Hopper, and The Year of the Book.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moving from upstate New York to Chicago has been hard for Anna. She's finding it difficult to break into the established social bonds of her third-grade class, and she misses the garden that she had out back at her old house. The plants in her bedroom are small comfort. So when her teacher assigns a group project wherein the students must give a persuasive speech, Anna's hopeful that Kaya and Reed, her groupmates, can be her new friends. Things look even brighter when she learns that Kaya's grandmother is active in a local community garden - and there's a neglected bed in terrible need of an overhaul. Can Anna, Reed, and Kaya persuade their classmates that gardening is fun - and save the veggies in the abandoned plot?

It's been a long time since I read a book at the second or third grade level that I enjoyed as much as this! I love the currency of the topic - urban gardening - and the way Meyerhoff makes gardening seem approachable and fun for children. Anna's "new kid in school" struggles are super retread territory for the transitional genre, but I can overlook that in favor of the unique subject matter, realistic depiction of children, and gardening/cooking tips in the back of the book. Anna's classmates are multicultural in a way that seems realistic for a child attending a Chicago public school, too.

[Munro's Kids · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad! It comes across as a bit cheesy and contrived at some points, but that could just be due to the fact that it's written for third graders. It's a pretty tame story about a girl who moves to a new city and is having trouble making friends. She finds herself part of a group project on persuasive essays. She convinces her group to write about the joys of gardening and they end up battling to own this plot in a community garden. The problem is that they need an adult to sponsor the plot for them, and no one's willing to do it. So the power of friendship and hard work save the day! Yay!

I like that there's an instructional page at the back on how to plant broccoli. There's also a recipe for a snack that Anna's family makes in the book, which is cool. So it's pretty decent, and I like that there's a primary series focused on gardening. But it didn't blow me away.

[Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anna moves from rural New York to very urban Chicago and misses her old friends, gardening, and good meals. Well done early chapter book, enjoyable to this adult. (But then, it's one of my favorite topics: growing vegetables!) The pictures were a little off for me: the arms! What's up with the arms?!

[Kristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sweet beginning chapter book about friendship. Not much happened in this--it felt mostly like the set up for the series, rather than a complete story on its own, but I think 2nd and 3rd graders would enjoy the gentle story and start to the series.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great 3rd grade read and great book club book - girls will appreciate the series. I appreciate how the teacher is real, involved and caring.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice story about making friends when you are new in town.

[Alexa Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in Chicago, this book about community gardens emphasizes friendship and fun, with enough drama and trouble-making (for a good cause) to keep it interesting.

[Keira · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it was a good book.

[Yapha · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC provided by publisher.