Who Am I? by Armando & Frederick
Monday, July 12th – Friday, August 20th

Take a stroll in the Garden Plaza and along your way enjoy the book, Who Am I? written by Armando and Frederick. Who Am I? is a cute and healthy story about fruits and vegetables that is perfect for the summer! There will be kits available in the Library’s lobby that will include a follow-up STEAM activities sheet and a craft (some seeds too!)* for you and your family to do and enjoy at home or outdoors. *craft and seeds available while supplies last.

Below you will find additional stories, nonfiction and poetry to share with your kids about fruits, vegetables and gardening to extend the learning fun!

The Ultimate Guide to Gardening: Grow Your Own Indoor, Vegetable, Fairy, and Other Great Gardens by Lisa J. Amstutz
(Grades 3-5)
OverDrive
Library Catalog
“Children and parents will learn about a variety of gardening styles with this charming DIY guide. The book opens with some general tips about gardening and plant care and then presents ideas for growing edible, indoor, creative, and enchanted gardens. Many of the ideas can easily be altered to use materials available to readers. Amstutz provides suggestions for different varieties of plants, containers, and decorations for readers looking to modify the projects. While some suggestions, such as the Teacup Garden or the Scrappy Kitchen Garden, could be accomplished by children, most activities require adult assistance. Some of the projects, such as the Topsy Turvy Tin Cans and the Living Wall Art, are a bit advanced but could be fun for parent-child teams. The instructions are clear to follow, and the pictures give a good idea of what to expect. Sidebars offer interesting gardening tips and insights. The ‘Plant Problems' section in the back gives short but helpful explanations of issues that may plague plants. VERDICT A solid offering for libraries in need of additional DIY or gardening materials for young students.” – School Library Journal
Rainbow Stew by Cathryn Falwell
(Preschool-Grade 2)
OverDrive
Library Catalog
“Vibrant multimedia collage harkens back to Falwell's Feast for 10 (1993), this time with a homegrown feast for four in a concept book about colors rather than counting. Three African-American children visiting their grandfather are disappointed when they awaken to a rainy day, but Grandpa doesn't keep them cooped up indoors. Instead, they all don rain gear and go outside with baskets to harvest vegetables from a backyard garden. Subsequent pages show the family gathering first green veggies, then a veritable rainbow of yellow peppers, purple cabbage heads, rosy radishes, red tomatoes, orange carrots, purple eggplants and even brown potatoes. After romping about for a bit, they go inside, dry, off and clean up, and then Grandpa and the children cook up a pot of his famous rainbow stew. The final page of the book even offers readers a recipe to try out–an enticing possibility after reading a story that positively revels in family togetherness and good food. The typeface of key words changes color as the rhyming text carries readers through the day, reflecting the theme. A treat.” – Kirkus Reviews
Harlem Grown: How One Big Idea Transformed a Neighborhood by Tony Hillery & Jessie Hartland
(Grades K-3)
OverDrive
Library Catalog
“Ideas plus action yield big rewards is the premise of this debut picture book, written by the founder and executive director of Harlem Grown, a New York City community garden collective. The text offers a historical account of the origins of Hillery's organization and an inspirational story about working together to meet a community need. Acclaimed illustrator Hartland (Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science) features characters of various ages and ethnicities. Led by Mr. Tony (and inspired by a little girl named Nevaeh), the community members clean an empty lot, prepare the land, and plant fruits and vegetables. The whimsical illustrations, framed by a palette of muted and lush greens and complementary colors, perfectly capture the book's theme of growth and collaboration. Instructions for starting a garden anywhere and additional resources for children and their families are included. VERDICT A wonderful addition to picture book collections in school and public libraries” – School Library Journal
Our Food: A Healthy Serving of Science and Poems by Grace Lin & Ranida T. McNeally
(Grades K-3)
OverDrive
Library Catalog
“Simple haiku offers a light accompaniment to colorful pages introducing the five food groups and the benefits of nutritional eating. Each of the five groups is broken into topics within the subject-’What is a fruit?,’ ‘What makes fruit sweet?,’ and so on. Bright, cartoon-like acrylics depict a diverse group of children exploring the natural world of food (an orange grove, a vegetable plot). Aligned to the side of each spread, an opening haiku and a chatty, readable paragraph provide further information. The cheerful and informative whole will delight classroom teachers and parents who homeschool alike-a neat, vibrant shopping cart full of attractively packaged explanations on food, diet, nutrition, and health (plus a word to the wise on why beans are ‘gassy’!).” – School Library Journal
The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin
(Grades K-3)
OverDrive
Hoopla
Library Catalog
“In this debut children's book, a girl and her mother chart their own course in spring planting–and reap the benefits. The girl narrator is clearly disappointed when, unlike her neighbors who prepare flower gardens, she and her mother plant Chinese vegetables that, her mother insists, are “better than flowers.” While the other backyards yield colorful blooms, her garden becomes crowded with ‘ugly vegetables,' lumpy, bumpy and ‘icky yellow.' But when the girl's mother uses them to make a soup, its ‘magical aroma' attracts neighbors to their door–carrying bouquets of flowers from their gardens. Though the pacing of the text is a bit uneven, the mother's confidence in the garden's success and Lin's message of community togetherness buoy up the narrative. A charming, childlike quality infuses the artwork; boldly hued gouache pictures feature skies and lawns as patterned as the girl's kitchen wallpaper and curtains. For ambitious young gardeners and would-be chefs, an illustrated glossary of the vegetables and their Chinese characters along with a soup recipe conclude the volume.” – Publishers Weekly
Yum! Mmmm! Que Rico! Americas’ Sproutings by Pat Mora & Rafael Lopez
(Preschool-Grade 3)
OverDrive
Library Catalog
“This concept book serves as a delicious introduction to 14 types of food, all of which have their origins in the Americas. Snippets of information and a haiku poem accompany each one, ranging from blueberry and chili pepper through papaya, prickly pear, and vanilla. Using English and a smattering of Spanish words, Mora crafts a playful introduction to each one, as in ‘Pumpkin’: ‘Under round luna ,/scattered tumblings down the rows,/autumn's orange face.’ The sense of whimsy is further underscored in Lopez's colorful acrylic on wood-panel illustrations. Artful compositions and brilliant complementary colors bear out the book's multicultural themes. The art conveys an infectious sense of fun, as smiling suns and moons beam down upon happy children and animals, along with a trumpet-wielding peanut-butter sandwich and a dancing pineapple. Teachers will find this a welcome addition to their social-studies units, but it should also win a broad general audience for its inventive, fun-filled approach to an ever-popular topic: food.” – School Library Journal
The Forever Garden by Laurel Snyder & Samantha Cotterill
(Grades K-3)
OverDrive
Library Catalog
“Laurel and her next-door neighbor Honey, an older woman, cultivate a friendship grounded in Honey's lovingly tended garden.Narrating from her child's eye, Laurel, who is white, observes Honey (with light brown skin and harlequin glasses) thinning lettuce, pulling beets, and singing to the kale. ‘She says it sings back, but I can't hear it. / Not even when I listen close.’ Honey dines with Laurel and her mom each Friday, bringing bouquets of ‘squash blossoms, rosemary, raspberries on a prickle branch. / Nothing matches, but everything fits.’ One day, a ‘for sale’ sign appears next door: Honey must move to care for her sick mother. Sensitively, Honey helps Laurel understand that the garden will continue on after she leaves. Her new strawberry plants will fruit for another family, just as she's enjoyed the grapes planted by an earlier gardener. She helps Laurel plant a young apple tree. When a new family with four young children moves into Honey's house, Laurel helps them in the garden–and sings to the kale. Cotterill's digitally colored pen-and-ink compositions enthusiastically depict Honey's flourishing veggies and natty garden attire. Visuals gently extend the story: Laurel inherits Honey's yellow straw hat and writes her an ‘I miss you’ letter. Loosely based on a Talmudic story, Snyder's tale is a tender tribute to the sustainability of good gardens–and intergenerational friendships.” – Kirkus Reviews