Food for Thought. Thought for Food.
Written: Aug 20 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Potatoes. Potatoes. Potatoes
Cons: Gimme even more potatoes.
The Bottom Line: This is one of the better potato books for kids.
Might cultivate a new generation of spudophiles.
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| nagels's Full Review: Louise Spilsbury - Potatoes |
Her keyboard illuminated by the glow of her monitor and the sun’s first rays, Louise Spilsbury sat deep in thought, her mind rifling through words faster than a shell game wizard at play. The book was nearing completion and needed a name, a name that would capture the essence of its content. With a name like a cookbook Louise understood well the importance of titles. She’d already written enough books to fill an aisle at Barnes and Noble and multiple screen pages on Amazon, but this book was special like a favorite child.
Starchky and Husks? Eyes Under Idaho? The Spud Chronicles? The Joy of Carbs? Planting Gold?
Tuber or Not Tuber? The Good Earth? Harry Plotter? The DaVinci Node? A Hero’s Life? Broccoli’s Foil? Carb Your Appetite? No. No. No. The title had to be short, concise, gripping, memorable…
And then, her furrowed brow glistening with beads of sweat, it came to her in a wondrous moment of clarity and inspiration, the perfect title. She would call her book POTATOES!
Louise Spilsbury is quite the prolific writer. A search on Amazon turned up 218 books (mostly for children) written by Louise herself or coauthored with Richard Spilsbury. Other searches on other venues turned up even more books, an impressive legacy. Potatoes is one of a Food Series by Spilsbury for Heinemann First Library. Each title in the series is a close up capsule of an important food, potatoes, of course, taking prominence over all. The books show how and where the foods are grown, how they’re harvested, and their place in our diets. Other titles in the series are: Apples, Bread, Eggs, Honey, Milk, Pasta, Pumpkins, and Rice. To maintain a balanced reading diet, a young reader should read more than one of the series as long as it includes Potatoes.
Spudopsis
One the first page young readers learn that potatoes, the world’s most popular vegetable, grow underground. More importantly the photos of a heaping bowl of potato chunks and lush potato fields mesmerize and Velcro-ize their focus for a journey into the world of spuds. Over a hundred kinds of potatoes exist, some waxy, some floury in texture; both types are illustrated with vivid pictures.
A brief history of the potato follows with information about potatoes around the world. The photo of an endless field of vibrant potato plants is breathtaking.
On the ensuing pages young readers learn how spuds are planted, grown, nurtured, and harvested. They witness unimaginable quantities of potatoes being stored in dark warehouses or shipped to consumers and factories for processing.
All of this time consuming work ends with the ultimate reward, the preparation and eating of these delicious taters. On the final pages are shown the benefits and place of potatoes in our diets with the grand finale a recipe for baked potato.
Random Thoughts and Observations
The stated reading level for this book is ages 4-8. Several third graders to whom I showed this book could mostly read this book independently. Those at the younger end of the recommended range will need assistance, though the fascinating, self-explanatory photographs speak for themselves.
Some of the more difficult words in the book are: grated, plow, healthy, harvesting, fluffy, explorers, Europe, Australia, Indiana, tractor, diseases, processed, carbohydrates, energy, fiber, pyramid, and nutrients. In a book of this nature some of these challenging words are unavoidable, inherent, and essential to the topic.
The book contains many interesting facts about potatoes of interest to children and adults alike. A few little nuggets of tater trivia even piqued Mrs. Spudman’s attention and interest.
I like that two spuds are in the bottom corner of almost every odd page, and a smattering of spuds fill the top corners of most even numbered pages. The book’s mouth-watering cover is filled with a smorgasbord of potatoes of various sizes, shapes, and colors.
The photographs in the book are consistent in vibrancy, color, clarity, focus, quality and pertinence. There’s even a classical work of art showing a lovely woman seated on a garden bench peeling potatoes. Her vegetable enhanced beauty is “appealing”.
The two-page glossary in the back is useful and includes helpful, understandable definitions. Some glossaries I’ve seen in elementary science books are laughable.
I’ve read a sackful of children’s books about potatoes, my favorite subject, and think this is one of the better ones. It’s worth a look, and while you’re at it you might as well read about some of the other foods too for balance.
Reading level – ages 4-8
32 pages
Dimensions – 8.8 by 7.7 by .4 inches
Recommended:
Yes
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