Who is Kim in Seedfolks?

In the book Seedfolks Kim is a little 9 year old Vietnamese girl.  Her father has died and she says prayers for him at an altar.  One day she gathers some dried lima beans and a thermos jar and goes to the lot.  The weather is spring weather which was unfamiliar to her in Vietnam. 

Kim goes to the vacant lot and makes a little garden area and plants the seeds.  The ground is hard and she digs with a spoon.  She feels sad because she has no memories of her father because she was a baby when he died.

Kim knows that her father had been a farmer in his home country.  She hopes if she plants the seeds that she can please her father when he sees the hard work she is doing in her little garden.