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The Farm That Feeds Us: Follow a family farm through all four seasons by Nancy Castaldo, Ginnie Hsu
mrslibrarianclaus's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
relaxing
fast-paced
5.0
I absolutely loved reading this book. I learned so much and feel very excited to start my garden in after the last frost this year.
evarano's review against another edition
5.0
I absolutely loved this book! As an educator there is so much you can do with it in a classroom. From read aloud to read at home, tracking the farm through the seasons to students exploring themselves, this book provides so much important information about farming! The illustrations are bright and catching, the information is straightforward and interesting. This book discusses so many important aspects of a farm running cohesively, including animals, planting, harvesting, diversity, bees, and more! One significant aspect is that this book talks about connections with the community and how individuals can engage with farms. This book presents the importance of farms in the world in an interesting and easy to understand fashion. Loved it.
Thanks to NetGalley for the free preview in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to NetGalley for the free preview in exchange for an honest review.
thrifty_librarian's review against another edition
3.0
This bright and clean picture book gives elementary aged children an introduction to different farms and what they produce.
Though this is for young children, it is idealized and frankly unrealistic. The modern farm looks nothing like the one pictured here. If the goal is for children to understand that food isn't magic and doesn't just appear at the grocery store, it would be beneficial for them to know, for example, that the meat they eat doesn't come from smiling animals who grazed happily until they died of old age.
This is quite an old-school representation of a farm, with people hand-picking and planting and very few machines. An attempt at balance between attempting to put farms in a positive light and showing the reality of farm work would've served readers better.
Though this is for young children, it is idealized and frankly unrealistic. The modern farm looks nothing like the one pictured here. If the goal is for children to understand that food isn't magic and doesn't just appear at the grocery store, it would be beneficial for them to know, for example, that the meat they eat doesn't come from smiling animals who grazed happily until they died of old age.
This is quite an old-school representation of a farm, with people hand-picking and planting and very few machines. An attempt at balance between attempting to put farms in a positive light and showing the reality of farm work would've served readers better.
graypeape's review against another edition
4.0
A lovely book about an idealistic organic family farm. The publisher is based in England, and perhaps small family farms are more utopic in Europe like the one in this book, but I don't think it's the norm in the U.S. (though I sincerely hope that will change and become more prevalent). Having said that, this book is a gorgeous introduction to small scale organic farming for children, showing the farm throughout the year, discussing not just crops and livestock, but also things like crop rotation, the importance of pollinators, the cycle of farm to table, while skipping over some of the harsher realities- the book mentions animals being raised for meat, but doesn't go any further into how they become meat, for example. Farmers markets are covered and visiting them encouraged, and hopefully this will inspire the next generation into thinking locally when it comes to food. The illustrations are bright and warm, and have a cozy, inviting feel to them.
#TheFarmThatFeedsUs #NetGalley
#TheFarmThatFeedsUs #NetGalley
crystalisreading's review against another edition
4.0
The Farm that Feeds Us by Nancy Castaldo is an attractive and educational juvenile nonfiction book, full of attractive illustrations and interesting facts about most aspects of farms and farming. When I requested an advanced copy of this title, I expected it to be a short and cute picture book for younger children, but it ended up clocking in 80 pages, with relatively small print and lots of information. Adults could certainly read this to children. Otherwise your target audience would be children with more advanced reading skills, in order to enjoy the writing (although I think the illustrations would charm even children who don't read yet.).
The author explains the annual cycle of the farm, starting with spring planting and honey bees and going through to bedding down for winter and preparing for the following year. I appreciated that so much emphasis was put on genetic diversity, heirloom seed varieties and livestock breeds, and environmental sustainability. I especially enjoyed the illustrative samplings of those heirloom plants and breeds, including pigs, sheep, cows, apples, and pumpkins, among others, and an introduction to various pollinators. This is a good way to affirm with children that local and organic products, when possible, are healthier choices. On the reverse, if that's not something with which you want your child indoctrinated, perhaps choose a book that is less heavy handed.
The art seems to seek to be diverse--most pages with multiple humans depicted will include at least one person of color. But the primary characters on each page tend to be white, with clear gender binaries and "traditional" family structures, so I was a little disappointed by that. I did appreciate that the recurring white female character was referred to as "the farmer" at one point, and not simply dismissed as a farmer's wife, and that all genders depicted were mostly shown sharing the work of the farm equally. My only other quibble, aside from fresh spinach being referred to as crunchy (I don't think of fresh spinach as crunchy, but maybe that's just me.), was that, despite so many other terms being carefully explained to the reader, the term "manure" is brought up on the farm equipment page, because of a manure spreader, but never explained. I personally am far too well acquainted with the concept of manure, having grown up on a farm myself, but for children that are unfamiliar with farming in general, there should really be an additional explanation that manure means livestock poop, which works as an effective natural fertilizer for crops.
Overall, though, #TheFarmThatFeedsUs is a lovely book about farming great for sharing with young readers in your life. Thank you to #NetGalley and Quarto Publishing for letting me read an #advancedcopy of this lovely book in exchange for an honest review.
The author explains the annual cycle of the farm, starting with spring planting and honey bees and going through to bedding down for winter and preparing for the following year. I appreciated that so much emphasis was put on genetic diversity, heirloom seed varieties and livestock breeds, and environmental sustainability. I especially enjoyed the illustrative samplings of those heirloom plants and breeds, including pigs, sheep, cows, apples, and pumpkins, among others, and an introduction to various pollinators. This is a good way to affirm with children that local and organic products, when possible, are healthier choices. On the reverse, if that's not something with which you want your child indoctrinated, perhaps choose a book that is less heavy handed.
The art seems to seek to be diverse--most pages with multiple humans depicted will include at least one person of color. But the primary characters on each page tend to be white, with clear gender binaries and "traditional" family structures, so I was a little disappointed by that. I did appreciate that the recurring white female character was referred to as "the farmer" at one point, and not simply dismissed as a farmer's wife, and that all genders depicted were mostly shown sharing the work of the farm equally. My only other quibble, aside from fresh spinach being referred to as crunchy (I don't think of fresh spinach as crunchy, but maybe that's just me.), was that, despite so many other terms being carefully explained to the reader, the term "manure" is brought up on the farm equipment page, because of a manure spreader, but never explained. I personally am far too well acquainted with the concept of manure, having grown up on a farm myself, but for children that are unfamiliar with farming in general, there should really be an additional explanation that manure means livestock poop, which works as an effective natural fertilizer for crops.
Overall, though, #TheFarmThatFeedsUs is a lovely book about farming great for sharing with young readers in your life. Thank you to #NetGalley and Quarto Publishing for letting me read an #advancedcopy of this lovely book in exchange for an honest review.
mldavisreads's review
hopeful
informative
4.25
Children's illustrated nonfiction. This book looks at an organic family farm through the lens of the different seasons. In the spring section, the reader meets the chickens and sheep, sees the orchard and the beehives, learns about tilling the fields, farm machinery, and a few spring crops. The summer section is the longest of course, with various pages on the garden part of the farm, milking cows, and the county fair. Fall shows the pumpkin harvest, preserving food, and putting the fields to sleep. The winter section focuses on the care and maintenance of the farm and also discusses baking bread (and seed shopping, my personal favorite winter task!). This book is very informative, with generous amounts of text on every page and beautiful detailed illustrations. Though this book specifies it features a small organic family farm, it is still a bit idealistic in how things are portrayed. Back matter includes some tips for the reader and a glossary. I think this is a great addition to the nonfiction section, because so many of the farm books for kids are at the beginning reader level and super-specific. Books on how an apple grows or different kinds of tractors are great, but this is about the whole farm!