Tending Ben's Garden

Novel

This is the story of a big sister's fierce love for her younger brother. Set in Michigan during the Great Depression, Kate and Ben's family do not think that they can do the best for little Ben, an uncommon child, and they allow him to go to a foster home.

Kate will not accept the situation, and she gets their brothers to help her tend his garden through all the seasons of his absence. The garden was important to Ben so the garden was important to them.

But she has to face some unpleasant realities even whilst hanging on to her dreams of getting Ben back. She rides the railroads with the hobos in search of him and nearly loses her life. 

Through all the difficulties the Depression brings to her family, eventually Ben is returned.  At the end of the book there is a poignant scene of it being Ben's turn to  look after Kate as an old lady.

Kim Delmar Cory’s   other Royal Fireworks children’s books, Lilly’s Way (1998), Charlie Boy (1999), are meticulously researched historical novels and are frequently used in fourth-grade curricula for the study of Michigan history. 

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