While walking home from school, Samara notices a lot of things in her neighborhood: a group of kids playing tag, running around in circles <em>on a small plot of land between two houses</em>; Mr. Peters sitting on a bench, <em>reading his newspaper as the heavy traffic of the town’s main thoroughfare whizzed by him</em>; her neighbor planting her annual vegetable garden, “You know, <em>if I had room, I would plant enough vegetables to feed the entire neighborhood!</em>"
She notices all this things and realizes "that Pine Grove did not have any open public spaces where everyone could go to relax and enjoy nature", where kids would have room to play, where there would be some silence to read and relax, where there were room to plant a communitary garden. And she decides to dedicate her summer "campaigning for a new community park".
And so she learns how to design a project to present to the town zoning board, she spends several weeks designing it with the help of the chief and other librarians, presents it, successes in it and invites everyone who want to help to construct the new community park to do so. "By midsummer, the community was able to enjoy the new, peaceful space. Samara was happy to have been part of creating not only a beautiful space, but a common area where residents could come together. "
So, she notices something lacking in the neighborhood and works hard to get it done with the help of all the community. Despite being ignorant on how to do it and nervous, she overcomes everything with the help of many friends and ends up doing something great that she can feel proud of.
