The Garden of Happiness

by Erika Tamar, Barbara Lambase (Illustrator)

A littered lot in New York’s Alphabet City is transformed into a lush garden by people of the neighborhood. Young Marisol finds a small patch of her own, where she plants a large, flat seed. As it grows up and up, it surprises everyone and becomes the most special plant in the Garden of Happiness. “A book with the welcome message that beauty can be everywhere.”-- Booklist

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

40 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1996

About the author

Erika Tamar is the award-winning author of nineteen books for children, including The Junkyard Dog, winner of the California Young Reader Medal and the Virginia Young Readers Award, and The Midnight Train Home, winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for best juvenile fiction.

She was born in Vienna, Austria. In 1939, after witnessing Kristallnacht and suffering under Jewish exclusionary laws, her parents sent her and her brother Henry, ages 4 and 9, away to strangers to save their lives.
They traveled to the U.S. in June 1939 as two of fifty children personally rescued by Jewish Philadelphians Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, a rescue effort featured in the HBO documentary film and book, 50 Children, by Steven Pressman, and supported by documents housed in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
By late August, they were adopted by a foster family and traveled to Houston, Texas, until her parents, Dr. Julius and Pauline Tamar, arrived in New York in November 1939, at which point they were reunited.
Erika tells this story herself in an oral history on video housed at the USHMM.

A lifelong New Yorker, Erika grew up in Washington Heights in Manhattan as the daughter of the neighborhood physician and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science.

Reviews

[Heidi-Marie]

Cute. I love the pictures. There is a sense of community in the story which I really liked. The idea of coming together, making things grow, and bringing happiness is nice. It would work for a story time because it moves. Older kids and younger ones would like it I believe. But I can't pronounce some of the phrases of the people and would not be able to do the story justice. Perhaps a book talk on this one.

[Heather Summers]

Marisol, who lives on the East side of New York City, joins her neighborhood in replacing a garbage-filled lot with a garden. She only gets a small corner to plant a single seed in but her sunflower becomes the excitement of the entire neighborhood. This book represents many cultures in an indirect way and it also represents unity among a multicultural neighborhood. I love that you can feel the attitudes of each character in the book just by the things that they say.

[Angela]

A nice story about a neighborhood garden & mural that revitalize a vacant city lot. Various ethnic groups represented, along with traditional foods from those groups. Talks about plants' growing cycles too. Overall a very nice book, if a bit too many words for my little one's attention span.

[Shelley]

This is a book about a girl who plants something in the city and the effect that has on her. As well as the sadness of the loss of the flower but the joy in remembering the growth, and celebrating it year-round.
Great for a sunflower seed unit...and is multicultural.

[Danielle]

Wonderful book about a girl who helps create an urban garden. Tremendous illustrations.

[Matthew]

This seemed a bit forced, though a story of community togetherness is always welcome. I might use it in a class in an urban area as it is a story of positivity in an urban area.

[Alexis]

lol

[Dominic Adams]

Book cleverly encourages making world better, more beautiful and gardening all through a touching story.

[Kimberly]

Marisol's neighbors clear off an empty lot and start a community garden. There isn't a plot left for the little girl. She picks a small space between the sidewalk and fence and plants a seed she finds on the sidewalk. From that tiny seed, a flower that towers over the garden grows. The cycle of life goes on, and Marisol is sad when the fruit and vegetables are harvested, and her flower dies. The community has one more surprise for Marisol.

Tags: Community -- Garden -- City and Town -- Life Cycle -- Teens (positive portrayal) -- immigrants -- diversity

[Marilyn]

Great story about a girl who plants a seed and waits to see what grows. Alissa knew it would be a sunflower because she recognized the seed.