Secret Gardeners - Growing a Community and Healing the Earth

2025 Bank Street College of Education “Best Children’s Books of the Year” Selection
“The text thoughtfully blends facts with the story and promotes a deeper connection with the natural world, whether readers are in an urban or rural setting—or somewhere in between….Highly recommended.” —School Library Journal, Starred Review
When three children stumble into an overgrown city yard, they end up elbows-deep in an urban gardening project that replenishes the earth and unites a community.
With the mentorship of Amy, a neighbor who is well-versed in no-dig gardening, Luna, Bianca, and Billy set to work mixing manure, spreading mulch, and sowing seeds. After a few weeks of hard work, the yard is transformed into a sustainable community garden, and more and more people are showing up to grow herbs, mushrooms, vegetables, and fruit. Just when everyone is beginning to harvest their hard-earned local food, they learn that the property is going to be cleared for a parking lot. Will this be the end of their secret garden? Or can the children rally their community to save the day?
In Secret Gardeners, journalist and beekeeper Lina Laurent collaborates with author and illustrator Maija Hurme to tell a story of community solidarity and ecological stewardship. Woven among the dreamlike illustrations are informative notes about soil life, composting, seed starting, beekeeping, wild pollinators, and more. An exquisite blend of fiction and nonfiction that will equip readers with all the information and inspiration they need to begin their own no-dig garden…and maybe even their own community project.

About the author

Lina Laurent is a journalist and beekeeper. She lives part of the year in the village of Parkkuu in southern Finland, where she keeps not only bees, but also chickens, sheep and sometimes even pigs. Secret Gardeners is her first book for children.

Summary

Detailed information about all aspects of gardening is packaged into a heartfelt story of community action in which three bright children, with the help of neighborhood volunteers, bring new life and hope to a forgotten garden—now in paperback!

Foreword

• 5,000-copy
  print run
• Pitch to
  major review media, including The New York Times, The Horn Book Magazine, Kirkus
  Reviews, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal
• Featured
  at physical and virtual library conferences
• Targeted
  marketing to major review centers, influential bloggers, and major library
  system selectors
• Classroom
  guide for educators forthcoming
• Promotion
  on social media, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest
• E-newsletter
  promotion
• Digital
  review copies will be available on Edelweiss

Product details

• Authors: Lina Laurent
• Assisted by: Maija Hurme (Illustration), Sofia Karlsson (Translation), Jen Pulju Porter (Translation)
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 6 to 9
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 24.01.2025, delayed
• EAN: 9781772783339
• ISBN: 978-1-77278-333-9
• No. of pages: 56
• Illustrations: Full-color illustrations throughout
• Subjects: Children's and young people's books; JUVENILE FICTION / Cooking & Food, JUVENILE FICTION / Lifestyles / City & Town Life, Children’s / Teenage general interest: Cooking & food, Cooking & food (Children's / Teenage), Interest age: from c 6 years, JUVENILE FICTION / Diversity & Multicultural, Children’s / Teenage general interest: City & town life, Children’s / Teenage general interest: Plants & trees, JUVENILE FICTION / Social Themes / Activism & Social Justice, Small gardens – Juvenile fiction, Community gardens – Juvenile fiction, No-tillage – Juvenile fiction