Skip to main content

Review: Tomatoes on Trial

By
Written by Lindsay H. Metcalf
Illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham
New York: Calkins Creek, 2025. Informational.

An age old debate that has caused divisions in my household for over six years: Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? Do we go with the botanical definition of what a fruit is or judge a tomato based on how it's used culinarily? This informational picture book tells the story of John Nix and his attempt to get tomatoes classified as a fruit so he wouldn't have to pay the 10% vegetable tax to import the nightshades from abroad. The lineup is then set for the great tomato debate as it took place in the Supreme Court case of Nix vs. Hedden. Arguments are laid out in a "food fight" before the court confirmed the tomato's place as a vegetable.

I loved how this book put historical context to what can be a humorous debate. Peppered with fruit and vegetable puns, Metcalf isn't shy about sharing the financial motivations of both Nix and the US government in trying to decide how a tomato should be classified. The illustrations do a good job showing which arguments belong to each side and give nice basic botany explanations for those not familiar with plant anatomy. Back matter includes four pages of definitions, external sources, and instructions on how to prepare for a debate. Overall, this book is a fun introduction to taxes, tariffs, and supreme court cases and could also be used to help kids learn how to craft an argument.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Factory

By
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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

By
A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall By Jasmine Warga New York: Harper, 2024. Fiction. 211 pages. A painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum and sixth-grader Rami Ahmed is worried he's the main suspect. His mother works at the museum as the lead custodian and Rami spends a lot of time hanging out at the museum while she works. On the day the painting went missing, the only people there were the security guard Ed, the cleaning crew, and Rami. Then, a mysterious girl appears in the museum. She floats around from room to room and only Rami can see her -- and she looks exactly like the girl from the missing painting. To prove his innocence and help figure out who the floating girl is, Rami partners up with an aspiring sleuth at school named Veda and the two dive into unexpected situations as they try to solve the mystery. This is a cozy mystery that is focused mostly on characters and ambiance and only a little on the mystery itself. Don't read this book if yo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Fowl Play

By
  Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...
Post a Comment
Read more