Jackson-grows-red-roses song.
I grinned. Wait till Mr. K. saw us. Arriving in Mama's zucchini-mobile.
A garden surprise, for sure.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
During World War II, nearly 20 million Americans planted vegetable gardens to help provide adequate food for those at home and U.S. soldiers overseas. These victory gardens came in all shapes and sizes. They were planted in window boxes, vacant city lots, backyards, and schoolyards. With so many fathers, uncles, and older brothers away at war, the children in many households helped sow seeds, tend plants, and harvest and preserve produce. They grew carrots, turnips, spinach, tomatoes, and many other vegetables and fruits.
Most of these gardens disappeared after the war— but a few continue to flourish. They might be considered living history, a testimony to the idea that history is made not just by presidents and generals but also by ordinary children, women, and men. For years, my husband and I tended a plot in our city community garden (the Melvin Hazen Community Garden in northwest Washington, D.C.). This garden began as a victory garden and is now part of Rock Creek Park, one of the largest urban national parks in the United States. Whenever I planted, weeded, and munched home-grown lettuce and radishes there, I thought about the numerous others who had worked this same small plot of land.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
With much gratitude to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities under the National Endowment for the Arts, for a creative writing grant during the time this book was written. Thank you to Elizabeth Judd and Annie Thacher for sharing gardening thoughts, and to the Melvin Hazen Community Garden in Washington, D.C., for many good gardening years. Thank you to Kevin Mohs for kindly answering questions related to an earlier draft. Many, many thanks to Leslie Buhler, executive director, and Jill Sanderson, education director, for information on Tudor Place, a historic house and garden in Washington, D.C. I am also deeply grateful to Nancy McCoy, education director of the National Museum of American History, for insights on victory gardens and the National Park Service, and to Perry Wheelock, Rock Creek Park's cultural historian, for information on the community gardens in this national park. Big thank-you bouquets go to Jen Carlson, Jennifer Wingertzahn, and Françoise Bui for seeing the manuscript through, and to Christopher and Christy David for their continued support and good cheer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mary Quattlebaum is an award-winning author of picture books, poetry, and novels for children, including
Underground Train, Grover G. Graham and Me,
and
Jackson Jones and the Puddle of Thorns,
winner of the first Marguerite de Angeli Prize, the
Parenting
Reading Magic Award, and other accolades. She writes frequently for the
Washington Post
and teaches creative writing in Washington, D.C., where she lives with her husband and daughter. For years Mary Quattlebaum tended a plot in a city community garden, where, like Jackson Jones, she found both weeds and good fellowship.
You can read more about the author at her Web site, www.maryquattlebaum.com .
Published by
Yearling
an imprint of
Random House Children's Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York
Copyright © 2004 by Mary Quattlebaum
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. For information address Delacorte Press.
Visit us on the Web! www.randomhouse.com/kids
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at
www.randomhouse.com/teachers
eISBN: 978-0-307-53303-6
December 2005
v3.0
I grinned. Wait till Mr. K. saw us. Arriving in Mama's zucchini-mobile.
A garden surprise, for sure.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
During World War II, nearly 20 million Americans planted vegetable gardens to help provide adequate food for those at home and U.S. soldiers overseas. These victory gardens came in all shapes and sizes. They were planted in window boxes, vacant city lots, backyards, and schoolyards. With so many fathers, uncles, and older brothers away at war, the children in many households helped sow seeds, tend plants, and harvest and preserve produce. They grew carrots, turnips, spinach, tomatoes, and many other vegetables and fruits.
Most of these gardens disappeared after the war— but a few continue to flourish. They might be considered living history, a testimony to the idea that history is made not just by presidents and generals but also by ordinary children, women, and men. For years, my husband and I tended a plot in our city community garden (the Melvin Hazen Community Garden in northwest Washington, D.C.). This garden began as a victory garden and is now part of Rock Creek Park, one of the largest urban national parks in the United States. Whenever I planted, weeded, and munched home-grown lettuce and radishes there, I thought about the numerous others who had worked this same small plot of land.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
With much gratitude to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities under the National Endowment for the Arts, for a creative writing grant during the time this book was written. Thank you to Elizabeth Judd and Annie Thacher for sharing gardening thoughts, and to the Melvin Hazen Community Garden in Washington, D.C., for many good gardening years. Thank you to Kevin Mohs for kindly answering questions related to an earlier draft. Many, many thanks to Leslie Buhler, executive director, and Jill Sanderson, education director, for information on Tudor Place, a historic house and garden in Washington, D.C. I am also deeply grateful to Nancy McCoy, education director of the National Museum of American History, for insights on victory gardens and the National Park Service, and to Perry Wheelock, Rock Creek Park's cultural historian, for information on the community gardens in this national park. Big thank-you bouquets go to Jen Carlson, Jennifer Wingertzahn, and Françoise Bui for seeing the manuscript through, and to Christopher and Christy David for their continued support and good cheer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mary Quattlebaum is an award-winning author of picture books, poetry, and novels for children, including
Underground Train, Grover G. Graham and Me,
and
Jackson Jones and the Puddle of Thorns,
winner of the first Marguerite de Angeli Prize, the
Parenting
Reading Magic Award, and other accolades. She writes frequently for the
Washington Post
and teaches creative writing in Washington, D.C., where she lives with her husband and daughter. For years Mary Quattlebaum tended a plot in a city community garden, where, like Jackson Jones, she found both weeds and good fellowship.
You can read more about the author at her Web site, www.maryquattlebaum.com .
Published by
Yearling
an imprint of
Random House Children's Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York
Copyright © 2004 by Mary Quattlebaum
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. For information address Delacorte Press.
Visit us on the Web! www.randomhouse.com/kids
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at
www.randomhouse.com/teachers
eISBN: 978-0-307-53303-6
December 2005
v3.0
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