READERS’ ROUNDUP

Bookworm Gardens’ Changing Garden

Readers’ Roundup is an opportunity to participate in the selection, design, and installation of a seasonal garden space at Bookworm Gardens. Every year, the Readers’ Roundup Garden is a completely new garden space representing a different book. Bookworm Gardens partners with a school or community organization to collaboratively create a transformed, unique space. Together, we pick the book, brainstorm garden design, and help plant the garden. This space is planted in May and runs the course of the open season (through October 31).

Readers’ Roundup originally started as a radio contest in 1953 and was brought back in the form of a book report contest in 2011 at Bookworm Gardens. For years, students would submit their book reports with the chance to win a special prize. In 2017, Bookworm Gardens decided to offer the chance for partners to design a garden space.

Our 2025 partner:

the Hmong Amercian Peace Academy (HAPA)

This year, Bookworm Gardens is partnering with Hmong American Peace Academy (HAPA) in Milwaukee. This will be the largest organization that Bookworm Gardens has partnered with as we are collectively working with the entire school!

The selected book is A Map into the World by Kao Kalia Yang.

This year’s Readers’ Roundup Garden holds special significance as 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of Hmong refugees resettling in the United States following the last plane leaving Long Cheng after the collapse of Laos. Through the lens of Kao Kalia Yang’s moving children’s book, visitors will explore themes of home, memory, and belonging, as told through the eyes of a young Hmong girl navigating life in a new world.

Our project timeline:

June 2024 - HAPA first Visited Bookworm Gardens

October 2024 – School Visit to HAPA to finalize book and plan out the year

December 2024 – School Brainstorming

Jenna, our Lead Horticulturist and Jordan, our Manager of Learning and Interpretation, worked with grades K4-Highschool (over 1,000 students) to brainstorm the Garden space. Questions like “What does this story mean to you?”, “What plants are important in Hmong gardens?”, and “What part of the story should we include in the garden?” were asked to students. It was important to include all grades in the brainstorming portion of the design.

January – Designing the Garden based on the information provided from the students, the book and research about traditional Hmong Gardens

February 2025 - Seed Planting

Jenna and Jordan traveled back down to HAPA to plant seeds for the Garden with 120 first grade students! They planted over 240 green onions, sunflowers, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

March 2025 - Artwork

Jordan worked with the middle school and high school art teachers to figure out what artwork the students would create for the garden. The middle schoolers would help decorate 4 pots with Hmong symbols and the high schoolers would create a wooden story cloth.

April 2025 - HAPA teachers and students helped translate signage to be in both English and Hmong.

May 2025 - HAPA On-Site Planting Day and Garden Installation

We welcomed over 150 students, educators, and chaperones from HAPA to help plant the garden for A Map into the World. The second graders took the seeds started by the 1st graders in February and planted them in the new Readers' Roundup space.
Planted 9 different types of traditional Hmong herbs (commonly used for chicken soup) like:

Pawj Qaib
Ntiv
Nkoj ntsuab or Mugwort
Okinawa Spinach or Tshuaj rog ntsuab
Iresine Herbstii or Nkaj Liab Hmoob
Artemisia Annua or Tshab xyoob
White Mugwort or Ko taw os liab
Eisholtzia Pendulfiora or Zej Ntshua Ntuag
Rooted Lemongrass

May 17, 2025 - Ribbon Cutting and Community Day

To celebrate the collaboration with HAPA and to officially open the new garden, Bookworm Gardens hosted a free community day that included a ribbon-cutting celebration with students and author, Kao Kalia Yang, book signing and story time with Yang, learn through interactive stations, view traditional Hmong dancing from Nkauj Hli Tshiab Dance Group and Sheboygan South Hmong Student Organization Dance Group, and enjoy food for purchase from local food trucks.
Visitors came from Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Minnesota, and Mississippi!

Read more about the partnership in our press release.

"Our collaboration with Bookworm Gardens has been a profound opportunity to uplift Hmong stories and honor the voices of our scholars. Nearly every HAPA division contributed to the 'A Map Into the World' exhibit, creating a modern Hmong story cloth mural, preparing plants and artwork, and helping bring Kao Kalia Yang's beautiful story to life. Our staff also partnered closely with the Bookworm Gardens team to ensure the exhibit was authentic and welcoming to all. We especially enjoyed joining the ribbon-cutting ceremony in May 2025, and offering translation support as the exhibit was unveiled to the public. We are deeply grateful for this collaboration, which not only celebrates Hmong heritage but also empowers our scholars to see themselves as creators and contributors to a broader community." -Dr. Chris Her-Xiong, HAPA's founder and CEO