“Oh, yes! Momma grew roses and hollyhocks and morning glories.” I looked over at Momma and swallowed hard. “She says friends and flowers are a lot alike. No matter bad your troubles, they gladden your heart.”

Why is this book out of print!? Mercifully it can still be purchased reasonably via Amazon used books and other sites. I just cannot fathom how this beautiful and heartwarming prairie story was allowed to slip out of print.

A Packet of Seeds by Deborah Hopkinson is a tender tale of a family who moved West because, as Pa told Momma, “folks around here are getting as close as kernels on a cob.” Momma is grieved by the decision and does not want to leave her sister and friends.

When the day arrived to leave, our narrator, Annie, “heard the soft rustling of skirts.” Each of her mother’s friends and Aunt Janice gathered around her pressing small packets into her hands.

When they got to their new home, it was barren and cold, and Momma was grieving even more.

“Momma mostly slept and kept to her bed, as though something dark and heavy pressed on her. Sometimes I saw tears slip down her cheeks. She crooned to the baby but didn’t give her a name.”

In Spring, Momma is tired from the new baby and still missing her old home. Pa is busy in the fields trying to make a farm out of the homestead. Annie and her brother Jim decide that what Momma needs most is a kitchen garden, so they set to making one. The earth is hard, and the prairie grasses are knotty and unyielding. But Pa comes and helps with the plow.

When Annie and Jim have the garden cultivated and planted, Annie wishes they had flower seeds to make it more cheery for Momma. “Then a soft voice came from behind us. ‘We do.'” Momma had gotten up and is touched by the beautiful garden her children had planted. She sends Annie into the house to fetch the packets of seeds the women had pressed into Momma’s hand as she left their old home.

“Dear Sister . . . Don’t be sad. When you plant these seeds, keep me in your heart. And remember: I will be digging in the same sweet earth, thinking of you in your new prairie home.”

This endearing book is graced with elegant prose by Deborah Hopkinson and whimsical illustrations by Bethanne Andersen. I am saddened that this was pulled out of a local elementary school library but grateful to have such a beautiful copy for my lending library. We need these kinds of stories in our libraries and schools.

Here is a link to A Packet of Seeds on Biblioguides