The Good Gardener

The Good Gardener is a coming of age novel that begins in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement. The NAACP places four Negro students in a small Southern high school to begin integration. For freshman Lizzie Rowan, the presence of one, Reginald Washington, will change her life as well as his over the next nine years. Unbearable losses turn their lives around until, like the garden Reginald has created, growth and renewal afford both second chances.