Literary Devices in Seedfolks
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
We're about to get super specific here, Shmoopers. We don't just know the city (Cleveland, Ohio) or even the type of space (a garden) where Seedfolks takes place. We also know the very street where...
Narrator Point of View
13 chapters + a different narrator for each chapter = So. Many. Narrators.Why not just stick with one? Well, having so many storytellers means we get tons of different views on the same tiny garden...
Genre
In Seedfolks, the characters share a common goal: to grow a community garden. And don't forget that the garden starts out as a trash heap and the characters start out as strangers. So this means th...
Tone
The characters in Seedfolks sure are a chatty bunch. All thirteen narrators give us a super casual tone when they're telling their tales. Whether they're talking about happy times or sad ones, thes...
Writing Style
Styling the Sentences: Keep It SimpleThe characters in Seedfolks avoid wordy sentences and fancy shmancy language. Instead, they keep their sentences simple. And because these sentences are unfussy...
What's Up With the Title?
Did you find yourself poring over every online dictionary, frantically looking up the word Seedfolks? Us too. But as it turns out, Paul Fleischman made it up. Luck for us, one of his characters doe...
What's Up With the Ending?
So we've been watching the community garden slowly come together over time. Plants are blooming and eventually all the neighbors finally start to get along. Basically, they're living the community...
Tough-o-Meter
Gear up for a quick read, Shmoopers. Fleischman gives us pretty simple language, so this book is majorly easygoing. Sure, some of the stories are up there on the sad-scale, but each new narrator ha...
Plot Analysis
Let's Get PlantingKim plants some lima bean seeds in a vacant lot one day. She doesn't know it yet, but this little action soon starts up a community garden for the neighborhood. Not too long aft...
Trivia
And the award goes to… the Fleischmans! Yep, Paul Fleischman won a Newbery Medal for his earlier book, Joyful Noise. And get this: his dad, Sid Fleischman, won a Newbery Medal just two years earl...
Steaminess Rating
Seedfolks is as sex-free as a book can get. Other than the sizzling summer heat in Cleveland, you won't find any steaminess here.
Allusions
Richard Nixon (5.8)Ancient Egyptians (10.6)Concentration camps (12.5)The Brady Bunch (4.6)Miles Davis (5.4)Genesis (5.1)Garden of Eden (6.3, 6.8)