SEEDFOLKS: READING AND STUDY GUIDE
About this Guide
This guide has been compiled to assist teachers and book discussion group facilitators in the study of the book Seedfolks, by Paul Fleischman, the Racine Reads selection for Spring, 2005. The activities and questions that follow are designed to enhance readers' understanding of the issues brought up by the book.
About the Author
Paul Fleischman was born in Monterey, Calif., the son of author Sid Fleischman. He grew up in Santa Monica in a family of gardeners. He is the author of many books for young readers including Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, winner of the 1989 Newbery Medal; Graven Images, a Newbery Honor Book; and Bull Run, illustrated by David Frampton. He spent a summer in North Carolina, writing Seedfolks and growing long rows of green beans.
About the Book
An article about a local psychotherapist who used gardening to help her clients led to Fleischman learning about community gardens--plots of land, usually in large cities, where anyone can grow food and flowers. He thought a community garden setting would offer a more varied cast of characters than a therapeutic garden: women, children, teenagers, people from every corner of the world. He began researching by reading newspapers and magazines with references to community gardens. Friends worked at a local garden for the homeless. Another friend who helped to found a community garden in Boston made him a tape of reminiscences. He read books and toured gardens, taking notes.
He knew immigration would be central to the book. "Seedfolks" is an old term for ancestors. Fleischman came across it many years before he thought of writing the book. His thought at the time was to collect actual accounts of first-generation immigrants to the United States, those who were the founders of their families here.
Fleischman selected Cleveland as a setting for Seedfolks. It had a large foreign-born population in the past. Cleveland continues to absorb new immigrants. Since Cleveland has cold, snowy winters, it has a short summer, where the sight of green can be precious. A number of Fleischman's friends lived there or had lived there and could provide him with some first hand observations.
Although the stories of the individuals in Seedfolks are fiction, they are based on the experiences of real people.
Questions for discussion
1. Kim:
Discuss where Kim and her family come from originally and their beliefs about the afterlife.
Discuss why Kim decides to plant the lima beans in the vacant lot.
2. Ana:
Discuss what Ana thinks Kim was doing and how that affects her (Ana.)
Discuss Ana's ethnic heritage and her life in Cleveland.
Discuss how Ana's thoughts change after she discovers what Kim really did.
3. Wendell:
Who is Wendell, what does he do for a living and what is his connection to the neighborhood?
What does Wendell think about Kim's actions?
4. Gonzalo:
Discuss Gonzalo's cultural heritage.
How did he learn English? How did Gonzalo's learning English affect his father?
What does Gonzalo think of his Tio Juan and how the garden affects him?
5. Leona:
How is Leona connected with others in the neighborhood?
Discuss what Leona thinks about goldenrod.
Discuss how she gets the vacant lot cleaned up.
6. Sam:
Discuss Sam's ethnic heritage and how he relates to others in the neighborhood and in the community garden.
How does Sam's choice of someone to help him in the garden affect that person?
Discuss Sam's observations on how some of the gardeners deal with conflict in the community garden.
7. Virgil:
Discuss Virgil's cultural heritage.
Discuss Virgil's father and his ideas for the garden.
8. Sae Young
Discuss Sae Young, her ethnic background and the business she and her husband ran.
How does the garden help Sae Young overcome the problems that affected her?
Discuss how the problem of getting water to the garden is solved.
9. Curtis:
Discuss Curtis, Lateesha and their relationship to each other and to the garden.
Discuss Royce and how the garden affects him.
10. Nora:
Discuss Nora, her work and Mr. Myles. What is their relationship to the neighborhood?
Discuss the garden's affects on both Nora and Mr. Myles.
What is the common language Nora discovers through the garden?
11. Maricela:
Discuss Maricela's ethnic heritage and her relationship to the neighborhood.
Discuss Maricela's feelings about the garden and how they changed over time.
Discuss how Leona affected Maricela and her feelings.
12. Amir:
Where did Amir and his family come from? Discuss how Amir feels about the people and place he comes from compared with Cleveland and America.
Discuss what Amir believes is the greatest benefit of the garden.
Discuss what Amir observes regarding the perception of others to strangers and those who are friends.
13. Florence:
Discuss Florence's ethnic heritage and her word for the ancestors who started a family in a particular place.
Discuss Florence's observations about the effect of the garden on the owners of the apartment buildings near the garden.
14. Throughout the book there are linking devices (the common thoughts, actions, events, etc. that link one character's story with that of the previous one, and with that of the following one.) Discuss some of them. How do they work? How do they give the reader a shifting perspective on events?
15. How does each person's cultural past, ethnic heritage and individual past affect his/her gardening experience and his/her sense of community?
16. Discuss the idea of a garden as it is developed in the book. Examine its growth, its change, its ability to change and its vulnerability. How is the garden truly organic?
17. Examine and discuss the pattern of windows, barriers, borders, barricades and space as they are used in Seedfolks.
18. Discuss the impacts of the realities versus the dreams of the people in the garden and in the neighborhood. Give examples of how they specifically impact the dynamics of the story.
19. Discuss how the garden, family and a sense of home are connected in the story.
20. Discuss some clever non-violent ways you could get your message across to those who are not paying attention to what you are saying, like what Leona did with the bag of trash.
21. It is said that in America we are innocent until proven guilty. Amir feels that in America we are all foes until we prove ourselves to be friends. Is either of these concepts true? What is your concept truth about how Americans perceive those we do not know?
Activities for Teachers and Students
Create your own Seedfolks book:
Have the class read the book Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman
After reading the book, have the students start journaling about topics such as immigration, their family's ethnic backgrounds and urban and community gardens
During the journaling process, the students will research their family ethnic heritage, create a class urban garden and learn about immigration
The journal topics will translate into each student's individual short story, similar to those in the book Seedfolks
Resources on the Internet:
Immigration web sites:
Center for Immigration Studies
Immigration and Naturalization Services
Urban Garden web sites:
An Urban Gardener's Journal
Urban Agriculture: An Abbreviated List of References and Resources Guide, 2000 -- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Alternative Farming Systems Information Center
Publications About Community Supported Agriculture
Also check the catalog of the Racine Public Library or another public library for books, videos and DVDs on related topics
Also check at your public library for magazine and newspaper articles on related topics
Check with the Racine Heritage Museum or another local historical society for information on the area's ethnic heritage and immigration
Check with local community gardens about urban gardening
Create Acrostic Poems
Using the names of the thirteen characters in Seedfolks, have students work in pairs to create acrostic poems about the individuals' particular attributes, quirks, qualities and characteristics. With short names like Kim or Ana, add other words so that the students have a sufficient number of lines to thoroughly cover the characters' personalities. (Examples: Kim's Lima Beans, Ana's Binoculars) (See the attached example of an acrostic poem.)
Create Portraits
Pair up students. Have them create portraits of what they think the characters in Seedfolks look like. Have the teams draw or paint what they think each person's garden plot looks like, with the person (or people) connected to that plot standing or sitting near it.
Writing and Language Arts
Have students imagine one, two and three years into the future of the community garden in Seedfolks. Students may select -- or the teacher may assign all thirteen characters to pairs of students -- one of the thirteen characters in the book. They will write three new entries in the character's "voice," telling what might be happening with the individuals, with the garden and with the neighborhood over the seasons and the passage of years.
Grow a Classroom Community Garden
Have students research their own family histories to learn if there are any special plant foods or flowers that hold particular significance for them. Have students prepare written reports, sharing their findings. Compile the reports into a class book. Then, do one of the following suggested activities:
Obtain the seeds or cuttings for each student's vegetable or flower and plant them in a garden plot on the school grounds, with students being responsible for maintaining the garden
If planting seeds and cuttings is not a possibility, have the students create posters of their selected vegetable or flower, creating a "garden" bulletin board for the rest of the school
Research Victory Gardens During World War II
Assign students to research the topic of Victory Gardens during World War II. Ask the following questions for them to research:
What is a Victory Garden?
Who and how many people participated in growing these gardens during World War II?
Who benefited from the gardens?
How did the gardens contribute to the war effort, both home and abroad?
Have the students look for copies of posters created by the U.S. Office of War Information, during World War II. Also have them look at the public library for copies of newspaper and magazine articles from the time, promoting the idea of victory gardens to Americans. Have the students interview any family members or older family friends who remember planting and growing victory gardens. Have the students include the information gathered with their other research. Have them either write up the results of what they found or give a speech with a poster (or posters) they make to illustrate what they learned.
Art Project
Combine a variety of dried seeds with other natural materials, such as acorns, small pinecones, corn kernels, pumpkin seeds and dried beans to make a mosaic picture of "Seedfolks." Have the students name their creations and write a brief paragraph sharing the details of the seed person they have created. To make the seed portraits, use 12" by 18" oaktag sheets of paper and glue on the seeds. Display the seed portraits for the rest of the school to admire.
This Reading and Study Guide for Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman was compiled for Racine Reads, a community-wide reading project in which residents are encouraged to read the same book at the same time.
The following materials were drawn upon to create the Reading and Study Guide:
Questions and Answers on Seedfolks, prepared by Fr. Bruce Clanton, Casa Cesar Chavez, Racine, Wis., circa 2000.
Questions for Seedfolks, by Dr. Janice E. Patten,
http://theliterarylink.com/seedfolks.html
Seedfolks Web Quest: Grades 8 -- 9, by Jennifer Wronkovich, http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/crc/webquest/seedfolks/
Curricular Connections: Seedfolks, Author: Paul Fleischman, Audio Bookshelf, Middletown, R.I. http://www.audiobookshelf.com/seedfolk_cc.html
Mr. Klingensmith's Online Help Guide. "How to Write an Acrostic Poem." http://members.fortunecity.com/mrk/help/acrostic.html
Mr. Klingensmith's Online Help Guide
How to Write an Acrostic Poem
The big idea
An acrostic poem is a way to show what you know about a character in a book you are reading. You might not think of it as poetry because it doesn't rhyme, but poetry doesn't always have to rhyme.
Before you begin
Make a list of all the things you know about the character: his or her likes, dislikes, abilities, fears, and so on. Then think of an important scene where the character appears.
How to do it
An acrostic poem is one where you choose a word or name (like the name of a character in a book) and use each letter in the name as the beginning of a word or line that tells something about that person or character.
An example
Here's one about Wilbur, from Charlotte's Web.
In my acrostic poem, I have tried to show that I actually read the book by saying something about Wilbur that comes from the story itself.
When he found himself
In Zuckerman's barn,
Lying on a
Big pile of manure, he felt
Utterly lonely. He
Rolled over and cried.
From: http://members.fortunecity.com/mrk/help/acrostic.html
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