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Genre: Contemporary Slice of Life | Age: Middle Grade (8+) | Buy: Amazon or BookShop | ⭐See star rating

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The Vanderbeeker siblings come up with a plan to turn an ivy-ridden abandoned lot into a garden as a gift to their upstairs neighbors who are going through a tough time.

Personal Review:

My kids and I enjoyed hanging out with the Vanderbeeker children again! (This was our August read-aloud.)

I like the personalities of the siblings, how they each are learning things as they learn to get along with each other and neighborhood friends who may rub them the wrong way. I think the messages there are great.

I also loved how they adored their upstairs neighbors and did everything they could to bless them while they were going through a very difficult time. The hearts of the siblings were in the right place.

The only thing I really don’t like is all the sneaking around. I was very pleased when they had some consequences for “stealing” some soil (I loved the job they were given). But they had to lie to the parents quite a bit to keep their garden a secret, and I wasn’t very pleased with that aspect. Their parents could have probably helped them out, but then I suppose the level of conflict within the story would not have been as exciting if the adults were actually involved :).

Happy reading!

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🤖 Always written and edited without the use of AI.