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Rah, Rah, Radishes!: A Vegetable Chant



Rah, Rah, Radishes!: A Vegetable Chant
by April Pulley Sayre
Simon & Schuster, 2011. Unpaged. Picture Book.

April Sayre leads an extended cheer for Vegetables from rah, rah radishes through root for rutabagas and bounce for beets. I can't think many kids would go for some of these vegetables, but perhaps that's the point: bok choy, cayenne peppers, eggplants, and kohlrabi deserve a shout out just like mainstream comestibles. The pictures are attractive, largely unposed full-page spreads shot in the South Bend Farmers' Market. The end page promises that although "no vegetables were harmed or mistreated in the making of this book . . . . Most were later eaten."
Sayre also coaxes kids to try and to learn about vegetables and shares the fascinating tidbit that although tomatoes are really a fruit, they were declared a vegetable in 1893 by the Supreme Court, for tax purposes in international commerce. Who knew?


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