JACKSON JONES AND MISSION GREENTOP

Jackson Jones finds surprising joys in gardening in Rooters, the neighborhood community garden. When his mother buys him his very own plot as a tenth-birthday gift, Jackson is less than thrilled. He would rather be playing basketball than pulling weeds and finds the company of Reuben, his best friend, a lot more interesting than hanging out with Mr. Kerring, who has been gardening at Rooters since 1944. But when the owner of the land decides to plow over the gardens to build a more profitable apartment building, Jackson realizes that his little plot of weeds and zucchini means a lot more to him than he thought. The soil of this story is sprinkled with weeds of its own. There is a bully named Blood and business people who care more about profit than the garden. In the end, Jackson’s solution allows everyone, even the weeds, to bloom at exactly the right time. With a bouquet of well-drawn minor characters, Quattlebaum has created a warm neighborhood with a good-hearted boy at its center. (author’s note) (Fiction. 7-10)