The Gardener

Its the 1930s, and when Lydia Graces family cant make ends meet, shes packed on a train with her pockets and bags full of seeds and sent to live with her gloomy Uncle Jima baker in the city. Lydia doesnt know much about baking bread, but she eagerly makes up for it with her green thumb. Shes in pursuit of one thing: make Uncle Jim smile.

Sarah Stewart is the author of The Money Tree and The Library.

Her husband, David Small, illustrated those books as well as many others, including George Washington's Cows and Fenwick's Suit. Ms. Stewart and Mr. Small live in Michigan.

"Late in the summer of 1935, Lydia Grace's parents are out of work, and to help make ends meet they send Lydia Grace to live with Uncle Jim, a baker in the city...Told entirely through letters, the story radiates her utterly (and convincingly) sunny personality...[An] inspiring offering from creative collaborators." --Starred, Publishers Weekly

"A moving, wonderfully rich illustrated story. It is that rarity, a pictorial delight that in 20 double pages gives more and more of itself each time it's read, and whose silent complexities reveal themselves with continuing pleasure." --The New York Times Book Review