OUR FOOD GROWS

by Sarah M. White ; illustrated by Tessa Gibbs ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2025

How does food make it to our plates?

Starting with some apparently plastic-packaged products in a grocery store—including one processed item and canned peas—White aims to remind supermarket regulars that much of our food actually comes from plants. She focuses on five fruits and vegetables: strawberries, tomatoes, peas, corn, and asparagus. The text is spare and minimally informative. Collagelike art pares its subjects to the basics as smart, flat designs in a shadowless world. White’s goal of showing children where our food comes from is an important one. Unfortunately, the food pictured looks exactly like the objects in a wood or plastic food playset, with high-design toddler tableware. Just as unreal are the plants themselves, divorced from actual earthy beds (soil is just a texture-less coffee background). Though the pictures would make great market posters, Jordan’s How Does Our Food Grow? (2023), for a wider age range, offers so much more detail, information, and realistic settings. The characters are diverse: A brown-skinned tot in boots tends to a tomato plant, sturdy brown hands grasp an asparagus spear, and a lighter-skinned adult and child show the scale of an asparagus fern.

A stylish but slight reminder to look at the origins of our fruits and veggies. (Picture book. 2-4)

Pub Date: April 1, 2025

ISBN: 9781685557775

Page Count: 32

Publisher: The Collective Book Studio

Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HEALTH & DAILY LIVING