Maria Luz and her family are poor farmers who live in the hills of Honduras. Like many struggling farmers around the world, they grow barely enough food to feed themselves. When the family's food supply runs low, Maria Luz's father must leave to find work and she is left to tend their garden alone. Then a new teacher comes to town, and changes start to happen. The teacher shows Maria Luz how to feed the soil with compost and create terraces that stop the earth from washing away. He shows her how to grow cash crops and, even more importantly, how to bypass the predatory middleman, the coyote, and sell her produce directly at the market. And as other villagers see Maria Luz's "good garden," they too make changes that begin to transform their lives. New farming methods —and hope—spread through the hillsides of Honduras like a healthy vine.

The Good Garden is a simple story about a big issue: food insecurity. About 75 percent of poor farmers around the world are not food secure—they do not grow enough to feed their families and buy other necessities of life The Good Garden is an introduction to this global issue. It also provides children with tools and information to help them make a difference, locally and globally, through the book.

From the dust jacket