During World War II, families across America planted their own gardens to help with the war effort. The more food that was produced here, the more food the government was able to send to the troops. “The Victory Garden” by Lee Kochenderfer, an intermediate historical fiction novel, is the story of one such garden.
Teresa is a young girl who wants to earn money to buy war bonds. Her older brother is a pilot and has been overseas for some time, and she’s anxious to do whatever she can to bring him home sooner. When her teacher announces that they should be thinking of projects to do to earn money for bonds, she starts to wonder what she can do. Her neighbor, Mr. Burt, and her father have been in a competition with each other to grow the best tomatoes, but Mr. Burt has been run over by a tractor and is laid up in the hospital, unable to participate in the friendly contest this year. Suddenly Teresa has an idea – the Burts will have to let their garden go to rot, with Mr. Burt not there. What if she and her school friends were to run the garden all summer, sell the produce to buy war bonds, and keep the garden from getting ruined? Mr. Burt gives permission and the kids get to work.
Along the way, they learn the meaning of such things as weeding, fertilizing, proper watering, and pulling bugs off plants. They even set up a home delivery route all over town to peddle their merchandise. By the end of the summer, they have earned enough money for a bond, and they have fulfilled their promise to the Burts.
Neither Teresa or her father win the tomato prize at the fair, but they come away from the situation feeling like they’ve won much, much more.
This gentle story is a reminder of a time gone by when people truly had to depend on each other for survival. I enjoyed learning a little more about this era and also taking a deeper look into the victory gardens, which helped our nation so much.
(This book was published in 2002 by Delacorte Press.)
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