Green Book Festival 2013 Winner - YA CategoryUP Authors Fiction Challenge WinnerTwo kids, two bikes, and an idea they can change their world.  It's 2077. There's no apocalypse, but some things are different. Things like the weather, the internet, and food. In twelve-year-old Clare's world, blueberry is just a flavor and apples are found only in fairy tales.  Then one day Clare meets an old woman who teaches her about seeds and real food. The woman (Ana) tempts Clare with the notion that food exists other than the square, processed, packaged food she has always known. Under Ana's tutelage, Clare and her friends learn about seeds and gardening despite suspicions that such actions are illegal.  When  the authorities discover the children's forbidden tomato plant and arrest their mother, Clare and her brother flee.  Clare has heard of a place called "The Garden State," and with their bikes, a little money, and backpacks, the children begin a lonely cross-country journey that tests them both physically and spiritually. Will they succeed in their quest to find a place of food freedom?  And can they, only children, help change the world?  Treasure is a gentle dystopian, frightening only is the possibility that we may not be far from the future it paints.

Seed Savers: Treasure

Children's Books

Smith, S.

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Sandra L. Smith

It's definitely not what she had in mind for summer vacation. When her friends disappear under mysterious circumstances, thirteen-year-old Lily sets out to discover more about the secret organization with which they had become involved. Her investigation unearths a disturbing secret from her own past, unsettling her world even more. In the meantime, Lily makes a new friend and falls for a mysterious young man even as she remains unsure about whom she should trust. As her world crashes down around her, Lily struggles to decide what to do next. Lily is volume two of the Seed Savers series but can easily be read out of order. It is is a suspenseful and reflective book with themes of self-empowerment, trust, acceptance of diversity, gardening, and politics.

Seed Savers: Lily

It's late in the twenty-first century and large corporations have merged with U.S. government agencies to control the nation's food supply. Not only is gardening and seed ownership illegal, but fresh food is unheard of by the masses who are fed the processed food groups of Vitees, Proteins, Carbos, Snacks, and Sweeties. Thirteen-year-old Clare and her brother Dante have escaped to Canada where the old ways still exist. There they make friends with the roguish Jason and learn the political history of their own country's decline of freedoms.Meanwhile, Lily, the friend who was left behind, begins her own journey to find the father she never met--a former leader in the ill-fated Seed Savers rebellion of fifteen years earlier. From Florida to the Smoky Mountains, Lily follows the signs in search of her father and is helped along the way by the quirky characters she meets. Not to mention the attractive Arturo who shows up midway to "protect" her.Heirloom seamlessly weaves the gentle agrarian story of Clare and Dante together with the swiftly-paced adventure of Lily and Arturo. Themes of family, empowerment, and politics meet in this futuristic tale nostalgic for the past. Heirloom is a hopeful dystopia in today's current sea of post-apocalyptic literature.  Second Edition Published March 2014

Seed Savers: Heirloom

As James Gardener works to keep Seed Savers from splintering, Lily, Clare, &amp; Dante become reckless and begin sneaking out of their hidden safe house. Will their desire to meet with an old friend lead to forgiveness, or will it end in betrayal?

Seed Savers: Keeper

Teen & Young Adult

Literature & Fiction

In a future where growing your own food is against the law, three young friends risk their safety by studying the illegal subject of gardening.The children's mentor, an elderly acquaintance named Ana, entices the children with her description of the food she knew as a child--food unlike the square, processed, packaged food they have always known.Constantly watching, however, is GRIM, the government agency that controls the nation's food and keeps in check all potential troublemakers.Will the children succeed in their quest to learn about gardening, and find a place of food freedom? And can they, only children, help change the world? Treasure is the 2013 YA Runner-up at the Green Book Festival. Lily, Heirloom, Keeper are available now.

Treasure (Seed Savers, 1)