Handful of Seeds »

One sad day, Grandmother died. "You cannot stay here," said the man who owned the land. "I have a family ready to move in."

Young Concepcion has no choice but to move to the [barrio] of the nearby city. There she meets children who, in order to survive, must steal the good they eat. But Concepcion has a plan. With back-breaking work she plants a garden amid the rubble, using her grandmother's legacy: a handful of chili, corn and bean seeds. But her garden is destroyed. Will she have the strength to begin again?

Monica Hughes's powerful story is complemented perfectly by the paintings of Luis Garay, a young Nicaraguan artist. Sharon, Lois and Bram provide a moving introduction. Published in collaboration with UNICEF Canada, A Handful of Seeds offers a message of hope on behalf of the thirty million children worldwide who live on the streets of their cities.

Publishers Weekly

When her grandmother dies, all Concepcion possesses is a bag of beans, corn and chilies, and her grandmother's advice: "Save enough seed for the next planting... then you will always have something to eat." With nowhere else to turn, Concepcion joins a band of orphans who live next to the dump and steal food for survival. But Concepcion plants a garden and eventually teaches the barrio children to do the same. Without sensationalizing, this tale presents a gritty picture of Latin American children living in poverty, idealizing only their instant solidarity and not their surroundings. First-time illustrator Garay's intriguing combination of paint and cross-hatching is theatrical, posed and yet honest, akin in its tone and scope to the work of Diego Rivera. In both these masterly illustrations and in Hughes's (Hunter in the Dark) text, the children are dignified and even heroic in their self-reliance. A bittersweet, well-crafted story, it gently opens eyes to the very different lives children lead. Ages 5-8. (Mar.)