Harlem Grown
How One Big Idea Transformed a Neighborhood
by Tony Hillery
illustrated by Jessie Hartland
Paula Wiseman Books (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), 2020. 36 pages.
Review written October 7, 2020, from a library book
Harlem Grown is a simple picture book about a community farm in the center of Harlem. It’s a true story, and written by the creator of the farm. However, the picture book text focuses on a young girl who attended the elementary school across the street from the vacant lot where the kids got to start the farm.
Nevaeh called it the haunted garden. It was cluttered with wrecked couches, old TVs, broken bottles, and empty cans.
The picture book takes us through the process of cleaning up the lot, and then the kids in the school being shown how to put seedlings into the ground. We’re even told that the first planting didn’t do well, so the sponsor, Mr. Tony, built raised beds for the plants.
The kids took their green beans and carrots and cucumbers home to their families for dinner.
A note at the back, with a photograph, explains that the neighborhood where the first Harlem Grown farm was created was also a neighborhood with no stores where you could purchase healthy food. Now there are twelve urban farms across Harlem that grow thousands of pounds of food, given back to the community free of charge. So they provide food for the community as well as giving the children a chance to tend living things.
I realized that many of these students growing up in the concrete jungle didn’t know where a tomato came from until they were introduced to Harlem Grown’s farms. Now, they happily eat fresh vegetables because they’re proud to have grown them themselves.
So besides being a nice picture book story, it’s also an inspirational true story of kids helping to make the world a better place.
harlemgrown.org
simonandschuster.com/kids
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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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