IMAGINE A GARDEN

People around the world solve community problems.

In Palestine, a bereaved mother plants flowers in spent tear-gas canisters; in a Rio de Janeiro favela, a gymnast/ballerina/office worker teaches dance to girls (who must have passing grades in school to attend). Under a bridge in Delhi, a shopkeeper teaches the children of poor migrant workers; in South Africa, a football lover coaches young players using a makeshift ball. In Canada, an Anishinaabe activist struggles to secure water rights; in Mexico, an artist creates musical instruments from illegal guns; and in Greece, a restaurateur cooks for refugees arriving on her island’s shores. The spare free verse underscores the positive in each case, and though the individual people aren’t identified, they are named in the backmatter, which offers more biographical details. Simple vignettes accompany the text, with two splendid full-page tissue-paper collage illustrations per person. Combining jewel-bright tones and different textures into clothing, landscapes, objects, dwellings, and more, the artwork lights the pages with settings that are barren but not stark. Why mere individuals should be struggling against enormous adverse odds and whether there are other entities and ways to address these issues are unasked questions. Still, these portrayals of seven admirable agents of hope and small-scale change are nothing if not inspiring. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Celebrating human endeavors like these might prompt more sweeping change.