The Cleveland Public School's tract garden program was one of the most successful and innovative programs of the school system. The organization and beauty of the gardens attracted horticulture educators from all over the United States, South America, and as far away as Japan. From its humble beginnings in 1904 as a project to beautify vacant lots in Cleveland, it grew into an educational tool that taught thousands of children the respect for nature and its bounty. At the tract gardens' height, the amount of land under cultivation in the middle of the Cleveland urban landscape approached 100 acres. By 1970, there were 27 horticultural centers servicing all Cleveland schools. Centers were located next to schools, in housing estates, at fairgrounds, at a home for the aged, and on museum property. A few of the centers are now neighborhood gardens. The photographs in Cleveland School Gardens show that the Cleveland Public Schools knew the importance of being "green" 100 years before it was politically fashionable.

There have been previous books on the Cleveland Museum of Art published by Scala, but this is the first to explore the gardens surrounding the museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art is located in a parklike setting with other cultural and educational institutions. Built on land given by one of the museum's major donors, the museum opened to the public in 1916. The foreground of this majestic white marble structure, however, was a long-neglected parcel of land with a small lake owned by the City of Cleveland. In the 1920s the Garden Club of Cleveland took on the job of transforming this blighted plot into a garden everyone could enjoy. Mary Hoerner presents the history of the Fine Arts Garden, and Jeffrey Strean discusses the development of the museum's grounds since the 1930s as well as plans for the future. This lavishly illustrated and beautifully designed book presents a new aspect of the history of a distinguished institution.

ALA Best Book for Young Adults ∙ School Library Journal Best Book ∙ Publishers Weekly Best Book ∙ IRA/CBC Children's Choice ∙ NCTE Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts A Vietnamese girl plants six lima beans in a Cleveland vacant lot. Looking down on the immigrant-filled neighborhood, a Romanian woman watches suspiciously. A school janitor gets involved, then a Guatemalan family. Then muscle-bound Curtis, trying to win back Lateesha. Pregnant Maricela. Amir from India. A sense of community sprouts and spreads. Newbery-winning author Paul Fleischman uses thirteen speakers to bring to life a community garden's founding and first year. The book's short length, diverse cast, and suitability for adults as well as children have led it to be used in countless one-book reads in schools and in cities across the country. Seedfolks has been drawn upon to teach tolerance, read in ESL classes, promoted by urban gardeners, and performed in schools and on stages from South Africa to Broadway. The book's many tributaries—from the author's immigrant grandfather to his adoption of two brothers from Mexico—are detailed in his forthcoming memoir, No Map, Great Trip: A Young Writer's Road to Page One. "The size of this slim volume belies the profound message of hope it contains." —Christian Science Monitor And don’t miss Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, the Newbery Medal-winning poetry collection!