JOY TAKES ROOT

When Joy visits Grammy in South Carolina, she acquires much more than a bag of seeds.

From Grammy, Joy learns that some plants can be powerful medicines and that it’s important to pause before planting to remember the ancestors who worked the same soil before you. Grammy also insists that the Earth has a heartbeat just like humans, although “listening takes practice.” Grammy’s okra plants stand taller than she is—a testament to her gardening passion and persistence. She teaches Joy to hold the soil in her hands and breathe her intentions into it to plant her hopes along with the seeds. Joy delights in the variety of shapes, sizes, and colors of the seeds they plant, and when it’s time for her to go home, Grammy gives her a bag of seeds of her own. Joy feels doubtful that she can cultivate a garden as successfully as her grandmother, but Grammy has taught her well. This contemplative portrayal of a Black grandmother and granddaughter bonding over their mutual love of gardening and the outdoors is both rare and welcome. In Corrin’s expansive and colorful illustrations, the heavy use of the color green, including on Grammy’s gardening apron, emphasizes the characters’ love of nature and how nature embraces them, too. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A quiet, thoughtful tale that promotes mindfulness, intentionality, gratitude, and connection.