Companion Resources

One day at her dad's house, a young girl finds two old potatoes in the cupboard. "Gross." But before she can throw them away, her dad suggests they try to grow new potatoes from the old ones, which have sprouted eyes. Told from May to September, the potato-growing season, the story includes all the basic steps for growing potatoes while subtly dealing with the parents' recent divorce. Just like the new potatoes that emerge from ugly old potatoes, this dad and daughter move on and make a new life together in the face of unavoidable and unpleasant change.

A love poem from a father to his two sons, and a tribute to the bees that pollinate the foods we love to eat. "Sometimes bees can be a bit rude. They fly in your face and prance on your food." And yet...without bees, we might not have strawberries for shortcakes or avocados for tacos! Children are introduced to different kinds of bees, "how not to get stung," and how the things we fear are often things we don't fully understand.

When Tantoh Nforba was a child, his fellow students mocked him for his interest in gardening. Today he's an environmental hero, bringing clean water and bountiful gardens to the central African nation of Cameroon. Authors Miranda Paul and Baptiste Paul share Farmer Tantoh's inspiring story.

Esperanza thought she'd always live a privileged life on her family's ranch in Mexico. She'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home filled with servants, and Mama, Papa, and Abuelita to care for her. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California and settle in a Mexican farm labor camp. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard work, financial struggles brought on by the Great Depression, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When Mama gets sick and a strike for better working conditions threatens to uproot their new life, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances—because Mama's life, and her own, depend on it.

Right in the middle of Marcy's city block is a vacant lot, littered and forlorn. Sometimes just looking at it makes Marcy feel sad. Then one spring, Marcy has a wonderful idea: instead of a useless lot, why not a green and growing space for everyone to enjoy? With her warm, hopeful text and inviting illustrations, DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan shows how a whole neighborhood blossoms when people join together and get involved.

One hopelessly stormy night, an especially hopeful child was born. She became known as Thunder Rose. Right from the start, Rose decided she would do more than just grow up to be good and strong, thank you very kindly! And, indeed she does. Rose grows up to soothe the rankest of beasts and subdue the wiliest of outlaws. With her trusty steer, Tater, at her side, there seems to be no mountain too high and no desert too dry for Rose. But when a whirling storm on a riotous rampage threatens, has Rose finally met her match? Don't be too sure. Wrought from the thunderous voice of Jerdine Nolen, and forged under the smoldering touch of Kadir Nelson, Thunder Rose is a heroine with more mettle than we've ever seen before.

Grandma Lena takes good care of the turnips she plants in her garden. One turnip grows so big that Grandma can't pull it out of the ground! Even when Grandpa, Uncle Izzy, and the dog help Grandma yank and tug, the big ol' turnip doesn't budge.

As a little girl and her father bake her birthday cake together, Daddy tells the story of her Grandpa Cacao, a farmer from the Ivory Coast in West Africa. In a land where elephants roam and the air is hot and damp, Grandpa Cacao worked in his village to harvest cacao, the most important ingredient in chocolate. "Chocolate is a gift to you from Grandpa Cacao," Daddy says. "We can only enjoy chocolate treats thanks to farmers like him." Once the cake is baked, it's ready to eat, but this isn't her only birthday present. There's a special surprise waiting at the front door...

Filled with excitement, a city girl and her father pick out a wonderful assortment of flowers, carry them home, and, sitting on newspaper, lovingly transplant them to a window box as a birthday surprise for Mom.

Count from one to ten and then count again. What does it take to make a feast for ten hungry people? First, there's shopping, then there's cooking, and setting the table. Everyone in the family helps, and as fast as you can count to ten, the feasting begins.

Beatrix discovers a wild bumblebee nest on her way home from school and finds herself drawn to their busy world. When her bees mysteriously disappear, Bea hatches a plan to bring them back. Can Bea inspire her school and community to save the bees? Bees provide us with valuable resources, and some types of bees are in danger of disappearing forever. But ordinary people (and kids!) can help save them. Filled with fascinating facts about bumblebees and ideas to help preserve their environment, Bea's Bees encourages kids to help protect bees and other pollinators.

When Dede sees a notice offering land to black people in Kansas, her family decides to give up their life of sharecropping to become homesteading pioneers in the Midwest. Inspired by the true story of Nicodemus, Kansas, a town founded in the late 1870s by Exodusters—former slaves leaving the Jim Crow South in search of a new beginning—this fictional story follows Dede and her parents as they set out to stake and secure a claim, finally allowing them to have a home to call their own.