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More Reviews:

Addie Across the Prairie
by Laurie Lawlor.

Tops and Bottoms
by Janet Stevens.

I'm a Seed
by Jean Marzollo.

Oliver's Vegetables
by Vivian French.

Oliver's Fruit Salad
by Vivian French.

Good Enough To Eat
by Lizzy Rockwell.

Dirt Made My Lunch
by the Banana Slug String Band.

Were You Born in a Barn?
by Chris Rowlands.

Books That Add Value to Reading and Agriculture

Miranda, Anne. To Market, To Market. H. Harcourt, Inc. 2001. ISBN 10: 0152163980.

We use To Market, To Market in Iowa State University Extension 4-H Youth Development’s Growing in the Garden curriculum, with the lesson “Our Lives Depend on Agriculture.” First to grab the reader’s and listener’s attention in the story are the bright, beautiful, and humorous illustrations by Janet Stevens. The author cleverly begins the story with the title and opening line of the Mother Goose nursery rhyme, “To market, to market to buy a fat pig. Home again, home again, jiggity jig.” From there trouble begins, but the rhythm of the rhyme continues as an elderly woman makes return trips to the market for a food, but instead of purchasing processed agricultural products, she brings home a live pig, hen, trout, lamb, cow, duck, and goat. But why is the pig in the sink, trout in the dishwasher, and hen in the cupboard? While she goes back for more, her earlier purchases are wreaking havoc in the house. Finally, after her “shopping disgrace” she gives up on animals and purchases vegetables to prepare her meal.

To Market, To Market was awarded The American Booksellers Book of the Year (ABBY) Honor book. These are books that American Booksellers Association members most enjoyed recommending to their customers during the previous year.

To Market, To Market supplements the lesson about agriculture by getting the students to think about where there food comes from and how value is added to these agricultural products from animals. The students can apply what they learned, using their language arts skills, by rewriting the nursery rhyme in modern-day food terms that are used to describe each of the animals identified in the book. For example, the first couple of verses could be rewritten to read:

“To market, to market, to buy bacon from a pig. Home again, home again, jiggity jig.”
“To market, to market, to buy a dozen eggs. Home again, home again, it’s time to rest my legs.”

The challenge is to keep the rhyme and rhythm going throughout the story. They may want to make a few substitutions, such as the product’s name for the animal or change goose to turkey. You can also make this story come alive by having the children act out the story using empty food containers. Discuss where the product is stored in the home until it is prepared and what kind of a meal they might use it for, such as breakfast, snack or dinner.

To Market, To Market was awarded The American Booksellers Book of the Year (ABBY) Honor book. These are books that American Booksellers Association members most enjoyed recommending to their customers during the previous year.

Children’s Books related to Farming and Value-Added Agriculture (Ages 4 – 8 and 9-12)

From Wheat to Bread by Stacy Taus-Bolstead. Lerner, 2003. (0822507153)
From Cow to Ice Cream by Bertram T. Knight. Children’s Press. 1997. (10: 0516260669)
Bread Comes to Life: A Garden of Wheat and a Loaf to Eat by George Levenson. Tricycle Press, 2008. (1582462739)
From Corn to Cereal by Robert Basel. Capstone, 2006. (0736842845)
From Wheat to Pasta by Robert Egan, Children’s Press, 1997. (10: 0516260693)
Milk, From Cow to Carton by Aliki. HarperCollins, 1992. (0064451119)
Thanks to Cows by Allan Fowler. Children’s Press, 1992. (0516049240)
Living on Farms by Allan Fowler. Children’s Press, 2000. (0516215647)
The Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons. Aladdin, 1987. (0689711166)
The Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons. HarperCollins, 2000. (0688175317)
Apples by Gail Gibbons. Holiday House. 2000. (0823416690)
The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons. Holiday House, 2008. (10: 0823421538)
Ice Cream: The Full Scoop by Gail Gibbons. Holiday House, 2008. (10: 0823421554
Once Upon a Farm by Bob Artley. Pelican Publishing Company, 2000. (1565547535)

CD’s and cassette tapes:

Dirt Made My Lunch by the Banana Slug String Band http://www.bananaslugstringband.com/

Were You Born in a Barn by Chris Rowlands. Order by phone by calling Chris Rowlands at 860-742-5671.

Books That Put Power Into Reading Skills and Prairies

Addie Across the Prairie by Laurie Lawlor.

A Prairie Alphabet
Author: Jo Bannatyne-Cugnet

If You're Not from the Prairie
Author: David Bouchard

A Tallgrass Prairie Alphabet
Author: Claudia McGehee

America's Prairies and Grasslands: Guide to Plants and Animals
Author: Marianne D. Wallace

Prairie Born
Author: David Bouchard

One Day in the Prairie
Author: Jean Craighead George

Living on a Prairie
Author: Jan Mader

A Home on the Prairie
Author: David C. Lion

Prairies and Grasslands
Author: James P. Rowan

Prairies
Author: Dorothy Hinshaw Patent

America's Prairies
Author: Frank J. Staub

The Prairie Builders: Reconstructing America's Lost Grasslands
Author: Sneed B. Collard III

A Prairie Boy's Summer
Author: William Kurelek

Voices on the Landscape
Contemporary Iowa Poets
Edited by poet Michael Carey

Growing in the Garden Book List
There are activities and processing questions written about the following books in Growing in the Garden: PreK-3 Curriculum and Growing in the Garden: Outdoor Classrooms for Young Gardeners, Leader’s Guide. For more information about these curricula, please click on Descriptions.