The Garden We Share

by Zoï Tucker, Swaney Julianna (Illustrator)

Overview

To everything there is a season in this beautiful story about gardening, seasons, and treasured memories.

This inspiring picture book written by Zoë Tucker and illustrated by Julianna Swaney—the #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator of We Are the Gardeners by Joanna Gaines—celebrates the friendship between a young girl and an elderly woman as they plant seeds in a community garden alongside friends and neighbors, waiting for the seeds to flower. By mid-summer, the friends welcome a rainbow of color in the garden and picnics in the sun. At harvest, the young girl’s elderly friend is bed-ridden, but jubilant as they share baskets with red tomatoes and snap peas amid the sweet smell of lavender. When the last leaves fall, everything is different. But in the spring, hope arises anew.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735844841
Publisher:	NorthSouth Books
Publication date:	03/22/2022
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,060,391
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Zoë Tucker is passionate about picture books and spends (almost) every day in the world of children’s publishing. Working as an art director and designer, she has the opportunity to work with authors, artists, and publishers from all over the world. Zoë lives and works on the south coast of England, with her husband, Adam, and her cat, Murray, and she uses a computer (almost) every day! She is the author of many children’s books including: Greta and the Giants (Frances Lincoln Children's Books) and Ada and the Number-Crunching Machine (NorthSouth Books).



Julianna Swaney illustrates children’s books for a living and couldn’t feel luckier to have such an amazing job. She is the illustrator of many books including #1 New York Times bestselling The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be by Joanna Gaines. Julianna lives with her partner in a 1911 craftsman bungalow in Portland, Oregon and loves reading 19th century literature written by women. This is her first book for NorthSouth. Visit her at JuliannaSwaney.com.

Editorial Reviews

03/28/2022

Connection blooms between a child and elderly companion during a spring and summer spent tending to potted vegetables and flowers planted in a space between brick buildings. Beginning with seeds (“each little dot full of hope and promise”) the tan-skinned pair wait for shoots to emerge and “whisper stories to each one.” The book quickly pivots to a bountiful harvest shared with neighbors of varying ages and skin tones. As the duo companionably save seeds, the older companion works from bed, briefly and suddenly foreshadowing emotional concluding scenes that extend the book’s theme of seasonality as well as life and death. Tucker’s lyrical prose emphasizes sensory experience (“We lie on a blanket in the grass and/ listen to the gentle hum of the honeybee”), while delicate accompanying illustrations by Swaney are washed with sage green and accented by rust oranges and warm harvest reds. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

In a community garden, a young girl and an elderly lady plant seeds in a garden of hope. With anticipation, they watch and wait for the first signs of growth. They whisper their dreams to the tiny sprouts, and in a wink of time, an abundance of beauty and delightful aromas surround them. At season’s end, they collect the fallen seeds and wrap them like treasured gifts. As winter approaches, the young girl mourns the loss of her companion. Memories of her are stored deep within the pits. In the springtime, they bless her with their magical blooms and the spiritual presence of one not forgotten. This is a beautiful story about a special bond between two seemingly disparate people––one a small girl and the other an old lady––who share a love for the natural world. The child learns an invaluable lesson from their relationship: when loved ones leave this life, they live on through precious remembrances of them. This poignant message will help children experiencing their own losses, and because of the sweet and subtle style of the author as well as the warm, heartfelt illustrations, readers ages five to nine won’t be left feeling sad but instead touched and hopeful.

Manhattan Book Review

The process of tending to a garden, and to friendships, is beautifully delineated as the women guide the girl through the stages of gardening and they all wait, visiting, napping, reading. The text conveys the sights, smells, and sounds of a garden, while the illustrations, done in pastels, feature the garden’s plenty in gorgeous detail.

Booklist

Words and pictures work together seamlessly to connect the ending of the older woman’s life to the natural progressions of the world, such as the passing of the seasons. It’s handled with such sensitivity that younger readers will be able to take in exactly as much of this message as they are ready for. While many children’s books address the loss of a grandparent, the fact that the narrator’s relationship to her older friend is never specified allows for more points of identification, enabling The Garden We Share to guide young readers through a wider range of losses. The next spring, the narrator returns to the garden to plant the seeds she and her friend collected the previous year. “And as the morning air warms my heart, little shoots emerge like magic,” the narrator says, “And you are with me again.” The Garden We Share is a gentle book overflowing with big lessons about life and death, the importance of experiences shared and the multitude of ways that the earth sustains us, even through great loss.

Bookpage

2022-04-13
A quiet celebration of gardens and loved ones.

In a tidy urban garden, a child with pigtails and their elderly caregiver—both beige-skinned—sow seeds in a raised bed with a diverse group of neighbors. Prose and illustrations are gentle, with a palette of relaxing greens, oranges, browns, and reds prevailing. The line “The cool air turns to a warm breeze, and the sun shines down to feed our souls. And our garden” is paired with negative space and seedlings that dance softly around the text. While young children will certainly learn about the general way plants grow, this tale will also encourage them to embrace relaxation and connect with older relatives or neighbors. The growing process becomes a way for the child to remember their caregiver, who unexpectedly is "gone" when the season turns to fall after a jubilant harvest dinner. The ambiguity of the word gone may prompt unexpected discussion about death in an otherwise mild tale. What sets this one apart from other garden fare is the exploration of the community garden as a space for relaxation and gathering.

Tender as a spring seedling. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews