Companion Resources

This book is 32 pages long and includes color pictures and text descriptions of the harvest of many food crops including watermelons, carrots, strawberries, and many more.

Who Grew My Soup? tells the story of young Phineas Quinn and his questions about the vegetable soup his mom serves for lunch.

On a rainy Saturday, what is better to do than to bake bread? Carrie and her brother bicker so much that their mother sends Carrie on a fool's errand to borrow a rolling pin. Each house she stops at a new kind of bread is offered to her and by the time she returns home the bread is ready at her house. This tummy warming story is both informational and fun for families to enjoy together as each new kind of bread represents a household of a different culture.

Challenged by his grandson as to how he can grow beautiful trees only to cut them down, the tree farmer shares his knowledge and understanding of trees as a renewable resource. He also shares his love of the products trees provide and how they touch the souls of the people whose lives they grace. Written about the family tree farm of the Rolling Stones' keyboardist, Chuck Leavell, the author shares his second life as a tree farmer. This is a book that shares a farmer's love of the land and the wise use of its resources.

Alternating between story and fact, this picture book follows a mother and son to the weekly market. As they check off items on their shopping list, the reader learns how each particular food was grown or produced, from its earliest stages to how it ended up at the market. To Market, To Market is a book that shines awareness on the skill that goes into making good food.

A fascinating slice of American history, Eating the Plates describes the customs, manners, and eating habits of the Pilgrims. From the hardships of the settlers' first years in the wilderness, to their eventual success in farming and hunting, the reader is immersed in the sights, sounds, and smells of life in Plymouth. The evolution of diet in early America is a subject that should appeal to students; the glimpses of Pilgrim manners and home life are sure to amuse. Ten tasty, simple recipes provide directions for a full meal.

This excellent book describes how foods from North and South America changed eating around the world. It focuses on corn, beans, peppers, peanuts, potatoes, tomatoes, and chocolate but also includes other foods that originated in the Americas. Can you imagine Italian food without the tomato? Indian curries without the pepper? German or Irish food without the potato? Corn is now the most widely grown grain in the world. This book details the history of those transitions and is illustrated with historic artwork and modern photos. For anyone wishing to understand the real gold found in America, this book is an essential read.

In 2000, the author began research for this book on the world's eating habits. Each family was asked to purchase a typical week's groceries, which were artfully arrayed—whether sacks of grain and potatoes and overripe bananas, or rows of packaged cereals, sodas and take-out pizzas—for a full-page family portrait. A detailed listing of the goods, broken down by food groups and expenditures are shown, then a more general discussion of how the food is raised and used, illustrated with a variety of photos and a family recipe. While the photos are extraordinary—fine enough for a stand-alone volume—it's the questions these photos ask that make this volume so gripping. This is a beautiful, quietly provocative volume.

After Mortimer takes a plant home from his 3rd grade classroom during summer vacation, strange things begin to occur. Plantzilla begins to grow tentacles and perform miraculous feats. Mortimer's parents begin to worry as they see the plant take on human characteristics, but Mortimer's love for Plantzilla grows even deeper. Written in letter-form, the text is a series of communications between Mortimer and his teacher, and the teacher and Mortimer's mother regarding the progress and concerns of this unusual plant. This humorous story contains beautiful watercolor illustrations that spill across the page and engage the reader.

Kids will learn all about the fascinating world of plants, while using the scientific method, performing more than 20 classroom-tested projects.

Author Milton Meltzer deals with these and other questions as he shows how food and the search for it has been a powerful force in shaping the world's history. He shows us how food has had a great influence on population and its growth or decline, on the rise of cities, on the expansion of trade, on economic and political thought, as well as on wars and revolutions. This book contains a series of entertaining essays, each of which is designed to elucidate another aspect of his topic. A great reference book for teachers and students.

Provides an introduction to the basic concepts of food production, distribution, and consumption by tracing the production of bread from wheat.