The Gardener

The Gardener Written by: Sarah Stewart Illustrations by: David Small
When Lydia Grace’s dad loses his job during the Great Depression she is sent to live with her uncle in the city working at a bakery. Although Lydia leaves her family on the farm as well as her love of gardening to start work she can’t help but to bring her passion for gardening to the city. Lydia at first misses her home life ; this is apparent in her thoughts about her uncle and how he never smiles as If he didn’t want her there. She learns to bake, helps her uncle smile, and bests of all turns her uncle’s bakery and house into an explosion of flowers. At the end of the story she gets a letter from her parents that her dad has finally gotten a job and that she can come home again!
Although the Great Depression isn’t mentioned straight forward it is apparent of what is going on by the format of the pictures and letters on each page. The huge colored sketches on each page show how cheap food was at that time such as a loaf of bread for 5 cents or muffins for 2 cents. The time era is also presented though the dates in the letters, the old cars on the streets, and a picture of Herbert Hoover on the wall of the bakery. If I were teaching a social studies class I would use this to stress how deprived people were at this time and how child had to work to help the family. This may give insight to the audience of children and help them realize how good they may have it.