Skip to main content

If You Like...Vegetables

People in general seem to be divided into two groups, people who love vegetables and those who tolerate (or just won't tolerate!) them. Whichever camp you fall into, I think you'll love these picture books about vegetables!
Written by Kyle Lukoff
Illustrated by Andrea Tsurumi
New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2024. Picture Book.

In this hilarious tale, Chester is sent to the community garden to get some vegetables to make a salad for lunch, only to be told by the garden's residents that none of them are actually vegetables. Whether the plants are roots, fruit, leaves, or flowers, what they can all agree on is that they are NOT vegetables. When Chester questions why people call them vegetables, they explain that humans have created classification systems that group them all together. In the end, Chester decides that since he can't find any vegetables in the garden, he and his mom might be better off with sandwiches for lunch. This clever book is great for talking with your kids about different types of vegetables, or how humans classify things in general.

No Nibbling
Written by Beth Ferry
Illustrated by A.N. Kang
New York : Roaring Brook Press, 2022. Picture Book.

Farmer Derwood takes careful care of his garden, so when he sees a dandelion he tries to pluck it, not realizing that the dandelion is actually the fuzzy tail of Tabitha the bunny. The farmer tries to confuse the bunny by saying that he's not actually planting a garden, he's performing experiments in the dirt. Tabitha eventually returns and Farmer Derwood makes sure that she knows the cardinal rule: "No nibbling!" Eventually they become friends as Tabitha helps the farmer weed the garden, and at the end of the season she gets her wish, a delicious vegetable dinner. Come for the adorable critters, stay for the amazing vegetable puns.

My Delicious Garden
Written by Anne-Marie Fortin
Illustrated by Julien CastaniƩ
Toronto: Owlkids Books, 2022. Picture Book.

In this book, a young gardener tends to her garden throughout the course of a year. Month by month as she explains each new task, whether it's planning, planting, weeding, or harvesting, kids will learn the work that goes into creating the garden of their dreams. This book is the perfect choice for a January read about vegetables! 

Written by Kjartan Poskitt
Illustrated by Alex Willmore
New York: Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2021. Picture Book.

In this hilarious tale, a pea flings itself off its plate and onto a great adventure. When a pea decides it isn't ready to be eaten, he jumps off the plate, straight into a dripping of sauce before ending up in a dog bowl and aquarium, narrowly missing a mouse trap and spider web along the way. He eventually ends up under the fridge with the rest of the forgotten food. Anyone who has had trouble getting a pea to stick to their fork will enjoy this fun adventure!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin Illustrated by Leslie Evans Charlesburg; 2009; unpaged Faces of the Moon is a short nonfiction book that describes the different phases of the moon and why the moon appears like it does on certain nights. This book is short and sweet so even the youngest of moon lovers will enjoy it. The layout is simplistic and easy to follow. I don’t know much about the moon so I found it very interesting.

Review: The New Girl

The New Girl By Cassandra Calin New York: Graphix, 2024. Comic. 261 pages. 12-year-old Lia and her family have just moved from Romania to Montreal, and she's doing her best to keep up with the changes. But, she's homesick. She misses the rest of her family, her friends, and her favorite Romanian treats. She doesn't speak French and her English is shaky, which makes it hard to make friends, even in her international immersion class. And she's dealing with super painful menstrual cramps every month. But before long, Lia starts to hit her stride. She befriends the other bilingual girls in her class, she gets a spot as the artist for her school's magazine, and even has a new crush -- Julien. Though she may be the new girl, Lia is starting to fit in. This slice of life graphic novel is an adorable choice for middle grade readers and young teens. Lia is a likable protagonist and readers will have little difficulty relating to her adjustment to school. The text speaks to a...

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...