Uncle John's City Garden

How does this city garden grow? With help from L’il Sissy and her siblings--and love, love, love! A celebration of nature, family, and food.

Visiting the city  from her home in the suburbs, an African American girl sees how a few packets of seeds, some helping hands, and hard work transform an empty lot in a housing project into a magical place where vegetables grow and family gathers. It’s the magic of nature in the heart of the city!

Bernette Ford’s autobiographical story is a loving glimpse at a girl, her siblings, and her uncle, and  their shared passion for farming. L’l Sissy’s fascination with measurement, comparison, and estimation introduces children to STEM concepts. And the progress of Uncle John’s garden introduces readers to the life cycle of plants.

Frank Morrison, winner of multiple Coretta Scott King awards and an NAACP Image Award, depicts dramatic cityscapes as well as the luscious colors and textures of Nature.


A Smithsonian Magazine Best Children's Book of the Year
A BCCB Blue Ribbon Book
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Bernette Ford is the co-author of the ground-breaking bestseller, Bright Eyes, Brown Skin. She is also author of the bestselling Ballet Kitty series, No More Diapers for Ducky, and for Holiday House, First Snow. She is highly regarded in the children's book community, and particularly in the African American children's book community. Uncle John’s City Garden, inspired by her uncle’s urban garden,  is her first book with Holiday House.

Before becoming a children’s book illustrator, Frank Morrison was a graffiti artist and break dancer. While on tour in Europe, he visited the Louvre, where paintings by the Masters inspired him to take his art in a new direction. Frank has won a Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award, a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor, a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a Society of Illustrators Original Art Silver Medal. Uncle John’s City Garden is his first book for Holiday House.