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Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman and Judy Pedersen

Arraying different voices like threads on a loom, Fleischman (Bull Run) weaves a seamless tale of the advent of a garden in urban Cleveland and how it unites a community. Here Fleischman slips with equal ease into the voices of a nine-year-old Vietnamese girl grieving for the father she never knew; a retired peace activist; a shopkeeper from Delhi; a dedicated British nurse; a 39-year-old Korean widow and crime victim hesitantly rejoining the world; a pregnant Mexican teenager; and seven other equally diverse characters. Fleischman carefully adds texture upon texture, crafting his story with wry humor and lustrous imagery: dead leaves reappear as the winter snows melt away "like a bookmark showing where you'd left off"; beans inadvertently uprooted are laid back in the ground "as gently as sleeping babies." The story's quiet beauty unfurls effortlessly--and lingers after the final page has been turned. Ages 10-up. Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

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The Trouble begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild west by Sid Fleischman

Starred Review. This biography of the writer who changed literature forever sets a standard few can meet: it is top-notch entertainment. Newbery Medalist Fleischman (The Whipping Boy) nearly channels Mark Twain's voice, making great use of his subject's wit to contextualize his place in American letters. Sam regarded it as akin to child abuse that his father... scraped up the funds to send him to the log schoolhouse, Fleischman writes of Samuel Clemens's boyhood in Missouri. With colorful detail, he catalogues Clemens's search for a vocation at the print shop, on the riverboat, with the gold-diggers and, finally, at the newspaper, where he first used the pen name Mark Twain. In one illustrative example, a San Francisco theater owner suggests in 1866 that Twain give a lecture about his recent adventures in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), and he accepts, despite a lack of public speaking experience. He did not have a gift for caution, Fleischman notes dryly. The title is taken from the lecture's advertising posters: Doors open at 7 o'clock. The Trouble to begin at 8 o'clock. Period engravings, newspaper cartoons and b&w photographs round out this spirited portrait. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 9 12. (July) Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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