Common Ground

A vacant lot, rat-infested and filled with garbage, looked like no place for a garden. Especially to a neighborhood of strangers where no one seems to care. Until one day, a young girl clears a small space and digs into the hard-packed soil to plant her precious bean seeds. Suddenly, the soil holds promise: To Curtis, who believes he can win back Lateesha's heart with a harvest of tomatoes; to Virgil's dad, who seems a fortune to be made from growing lettuce; and even to Mariclea, sixteen and pregnant, wishing she were dead.

Thirteen very different voices--old, young, Haitian, Hispanic, tough, haunted, and hopeful tell one amazing story about a garden that transforms a neighborhood.

An old man seeking renewal, a young girl connecting to a father she never knew, a pregnant teenager dreading motherhood. Thirteen voices tell one story of the flowering of a vacant city lot into a neighborhood garden. Old, young, Jamaican, Korean, Hispanic, tough, haunted, hopeful'Newbery Medal winner Paul Fleischman weaves characters as diverse as the plants they grow into a rich, multi-layered exploration of how a community is born and nurtured in an urban environment.

00-01 Utah Book Award (Gr. 7-12)

Common Ground

A vacant lot, rat-infested and filled with garbage, looked like no place for a garden. Especially to a neighborhood of strangers where no one seems to care. Until one day, a young girl clears a small space and digs into the hard-packed soil to plant her precious bean seeds. Suddenly, the soil holds promise: To Curtis, who believes he can win back Lateesha's heart with a harvest of tomatoes; to Virgil's dad, who seems a fortune to be made from growing lettuce; and even to Mariclea, sixteen and pregnant, wishing she were dead.

Thirteen very different voices--old, young, Haitian, Hispanic, tough, haunted, and hopeful tell one amazing story about a garden that transforms a neighborhood.

An old man seeking renewal, a young girl connecting to a father she never knew, a pregnant teenager dreading motherhood. Thirteen voices tell one story of the flowering of a vacant city lot into a neighborhood garden. Old, young, Jamaican, Korean, Hispanic, tough, haunted, hopeful'Newbery Medal winner Paul Fleischman weaves characters as diverse as the plants they grow into a rich, multi-layered exploration of how a community is born and nurtured in an urban environment.

00-01 Utah Book Award (Gr. 7-12)

Erik Petersen pa niogtyve, meldes savnet af sine foraeldre. Larsen, Gunnar og resten af holdet saettes pa sagen. Umiddelbart ligner det at Erik Petersen simpelthen er gaet sin vej. Men de naermeste insisterer pa, at han ikke kan vaere forsvundet af egen fri vilje. Larsen er ikke overbevist, men da endnu en mand forsvinder under lignende forhold, tager sagen en ny drejning. Samtidig med at sagen skrider frem, bliver Gunnar mere og mere passiv, i forsoget pa at finde de forsvundne maend, og han og Larsens venskab saettes pa en alvorlig pro

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