Content: Language: G; Mature Content: PG; Violence: PG
BUYING ADVISORY: EL, MS - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Chloe and her dad move across the country to be nearer to her grandfather, Uli, after he has a stroke. Chloe is eager to get to know Uli, and happily helps him with his mysterious garden of "heirloom" plants--the kind not grown by regular gardeners or large-scale farms. But when Uli passes away quite suddenly, Chloe is left to try and save these precious plants and their seeds all on her own. She will also have to decide where her own future lies--in Montreal with her mom or here in the city that Uli loved.
This was such a great story about the complicated relationships between parents and children. I enjoyed the aspect of the vegetable garden and Chloe's eagerness to get to know her grandfather and solve the mystery. The story felt very realistic, and I liked that it told a story of parental separation without using all the usual YA tropes. The book is totally clean with only some mature content related to death and bullying. I don't know how many young readers will be excited to pick up a book nominally about vegetables, but this really is a nice little story.
Reviewer: TC
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