Written by: Fran Manushkin
Illustrated by: Laura Zarrin
For ages: 5-8 years
Language: English
Topics Covered: POC-Centric Narratives, Farming, Farmer’s Markets, Teamwork, Friendship.
Summary:
Do you know how refreshing it is to see a farmer in a book that isn’t a white man? I am truly excited about it. In this beginner chapter book, Katie gets to spend the night on a farm, owned by her friend Pedro’s aunt Carmen.
In the book, Katie helps to pick the vegetables and go to the farmer’s market for the day, helping to sell the vegetables. As a manager of my own town’s farmer’s market, I was excited to see this representation and focus on support of small business owners! Sweet, simple, no reader is going to get bashed over the head with a moral to the story. Just some good representation!
About the Author & the Illustrator:
Fran Manushkin is a prolific writer that has been at it for many years! Here is an excerpt from her website, so you can get to know a little more about her:
“I wasn’t born in a log cabin, although I do come from the Land of Lincoln–Illinois. I grew up in Chicago with five brothers and sisters and one dog, Snowball. I loved to read, but had absolutely no inkling that I could grow up to be a writer. I thought all writers had triple names, like my favorite, Maud Hart Lovelace, and that they had entire books waiting in their heads, and simply wrote them down, lickety-split.
I always knew I wanted to work with children, so I got a B.A. in education from Chicago Teacher’s College. After graduation, I moved to New York City. My great good fortune came when I met Ezra Jack Keats (author-artist of THE SNOWY DAY), who told me about an editorial assistant’s opening in the children’s book department of Harper & Row. I was hired, and for ten years I worked with two of the most brilliant editors in publishing: Ursula Nordstrom and Charlotte Zolotow.
After becoming a junior editor, I soon had the great pleasure of discovering new talent: I did Bruce Degan’s first book, AUNT POSSOM AND THE PUMPKIN MAN, Myron Levoy’s classic, ALAN AND NAOMI, and I also worked with Lillian Hoban on her first Arthur books.
It was Charlotte Zolotow who urged me to write my own stories, and my first book BABY (later titled BABY, COME OUT!) was published in 1972. Since then I’ve written many many books, but no thrill has ever matched that moment when I became a writer.
Because I was such a late bloomer, I am always eager to help children recognize and appreciate their gifts and begin using them NOW. When I speak at schools, I show children my messy manuscripts, the artist’s many sketches, and talk about how much stubbornness and good humor it takes to accomplish anything in life, including writing.”
Laura Zarrin spent her childhood in the St. Louis area exploring creeks, woods, and attic closets, with plenty of tree climbing and digging for artifacts in the backyard all in preparation for her future career as an archeologist. She never became one because she realized she’s much happier drawing in the comfort of her own home while watching TV. Obsessed with the Little House books and Native American cultures, Laura drew lots and lots of pioneers and studied pictographs and books about that time period. When she was 12, her family moved to the Silicon Valley in California where she still resides with her very logical husband and teen sons, and their illogical dog, Cody.