The Farm That Feeds Us: A Year in the Life of an Organic Farm

by Nancy Castaldo (Author) Ginnie Hsu (Illustrator)

Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade
Where does our food come from? What role do farms play? What’s it like to be a farmer? In this charmingly illustrated book, follow a farm throughout the year to discover how the farmer grows fresh and tasty food for us to eat in a sustainable and natural way.

Explore the workings of a small-scale, organic family farm and experience the rhythm of farm life. In the spring, visit the chicken coop, till the fields, and tour the farm machinery. When summer comes, plant corn, meet the pollinators, and head to the county fair. In the fall, make pies and preserves, harvest pumpkins, and put the fields to sleep. Winter activities include trimming and pruning the orchard, seed shopping, and baking bread.

To conclude your year on the farm, learn what you can do to support the farmers who pick our carrots and raise the cows for our milk. A glossary defines key sustainable farming terms.

Through this colorful and intimate look at life on a small-scale farm, children will learn not only how the farm feeds us, but how the farmer must feed and care for the farm.
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Hardcover
$19.95

School Library Journal

Gr 2-5--This illustrated nonfiction book depicts the rhythm and everyday duties of life on a family farm. Castaldo organizes the details of farm operation by seasonal work. Readers learn about the purpose of a farm through the frame of the required year-round maintenance. The text shares facts about the finer parts of running a farm, like beekeeping, the county fair, and farm pollination. In a nod to modern food trends, two pages are dedicated to discussing the meaning of farm to table. Hsu's beautiful illustrations coupled with Castaldo's prose describe different types of farms and what each might contain, from the barn to the coop to the orchard. The book offers an informative and colorful study of growing, harvesting, and consuming food. Readers are sure to develop an appreciation for their food, including where it originates and the labor it requires. VERDICT An engaging resource that will appeal to a variety of elementary audiences, plant lovers, animal lovers, and farm machinery lovers alike.--Sara Jurek, Children's English Lib., Stuttgart, Germany

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

"Colorful and intimate." - Midwest Book Review
Nancy Castaldo

Nancy Castaldo has written books about our planet for over 20 years. Her 2016 title The Story of Seeds: From Mendel's Garden to Your Plate, and How There's More of Less To Eat Around The World introduces readers to the importance of seeds, farming, and the crisis we currently face. It received the Green Earth Book Award and many other accolades.

Ginnie Hsu is an illustrator, designer, and educator living in upstate New York. Her work is often inspired by everyday life, nature, human living, and well-being. Ginnie also enjoys foraging, yoga, and herbalism.

Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9780711242531
Lexile Measure
920
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Words & Pictures
Publication date
July 21, 2020
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF003080 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Animals | Farm Animals
JNF051020 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Technology | Agriculture
JNF033000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Lifestyles | Farm & Ranch Life
Library of Congress categories
Farm life
Farms, Small
Organic farming
Sustainable agriculture

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