SEE WHAT WE EAT!

Ritchie’s group of friends from Look Where We Live! and Follow That Map! (2015, 2009) this time take a trip to Yulee’s aunt’s farm to see where food comes from and collect the ingredients for an apple crisp for the community potluck dinner.

In the van, the kids learn about the food groups and why it’s important to eat a variety of foods from each group. Once they reach the farm, Aunt Sara gives the kids a tour, and this is how Ritchie painlessly introduces readers to grains, a rainbow of vegetables, the protein packed in eggs, the products that come from cow and goat milk, and how to tell when apples are ready to be picked. The kids then refuel with a nutritious snack and drive to the store, along the way learning how foods that aren’t grown locally get to the market. Once they have their ingredients, it’s off to Pedro’s house to cook with his dad. Yulee and Pedro compost the peels. A final spread shows the kids arriving at the harvest dinner with their dessert. The five are already a diverse group, but Ritchie consciously extends it with this scene, rounding out the community with the elderly, a person in a wheelchair, and a man in a turban, among others.

A solid nutritional primer that is sure to get mouths watering for healthy food…and apple crisp.