We Are a Garden: A Story of How Diversity Took Root in America by Lisa Westberg Peters

Abstract

Reviewed by: We Are a Garden: A Story of How Diversity Took Root in America by Lisa Westberg Peters Deborah Stevenson, Editor Peters, Lisa Westberg We Are a Garden: A Story of How Diversity Took Root in America; illus. by Victoria Tentler-Krylov. Schwartz & Wade, 2021 [40p] Library ed. ISBN 9780593123140 $20.99 Trade ed. ISBN 9780593123133 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780593123157 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys Ad 5-7 yrs “Long ago, a strong wind blew. It blew people, like seeds, to a new land.” That’s the description, in Peters’ American migration story, of the first people to come to North America. As millennia and centuries go by, the wind blows those people to every corner of the continent, and then it blows in conquistadors and colonists, enslaved people and voluntary immigrants, from east, west, and south, and it still does today. The garden is an engaging metaphor for both diversity and migration, and the book is honest in its inclusion of enslavement, genocide, and colonization. However, the image homogenizes some very different migrations and renders participants ahistorically passive; there’s also little acknowledgment that the included lines from Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus” contradict the experience of many of those blown seeds featured in the book. Tentler-Kylov (herself an immigrant) employs agile watercolors in energetic, dynamically composed spreads; while one spread confusingly differs from the text (the art features conquistadors on horseback [End Page 394] while the text describes colonists with wagons), illustrations are otherwise thoughtful, individualized, and appropriately diverse. Despite the book’s flaws, the garden concept offers a new way to talk about national identity and diversity, and listeners may appreciate the tempered optimism. Appended are a glossary, notes to each spread that provide specifics about the pictured events, and a list of sources. Copyright © 2021 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois