Plant a Seed, Harvest a Dream
by Mamadou Wade and the Youth of Hope Blooms
Nimbus Publishing, 2018
ISBN 978-1-77108-695-0
$22.95 pb. 176 pp, ages 10+
nimbus.ca
Hope Blooms is a non-fiction book about the manifestation of an idea born through hope. It is the story of a community project in the north end of Halifax. The project started as a way to engage youth and help families at risk through engaging youth in positive community action while contributing to food programs. In itself this is noteworthy, but the story becomes significant when we learn that the project starred on the hit show Dragon’s Den. The group practised their pitch for months. They hoped to earn ten thousand dollars to build a greenhouse and ended up engaging four of the five “dragons” for a total of forty thousand dollars. The Hope Blooms project has now expanded into bottled salad dressings for Loblaws in the Halifax area, and created a scholarship for graduates of the volunteer program. The book includes full-page colour photography of the participants in addition to 45 pages of recipes.
Classroom Connections: This is a book that extends the curriculum beyond the classroom. For the teacher who wants to engage students in activism, this book can inspire children to begin schoolyard vegetable gardens to assist families to acquire food security. It can also be used to show students how a good idea powered through youth can change lives. In a world where we often become dejected at the overwhelming poverty and social inequality, the organizers and volunteers of Hope Blooms prove that action born of an idea can create exponential change.
Review by Kent Miller.
This review appears in the Fall 2020 issue of Canadian Teacher Magazine.