about the book
Will Allen is not a typical farmer. He’s a retired professional basketball player who is over six and a half feet tall!
Growing up, he lived on a farm, vowing never to plant or dig ever again. Clearly that didn’t work out for him. While he was playing basketball in Europe, he helped a friend dig potatoes. And he was hooked!
Back in the United States, he bought an abandoned city lot. More space was needed, so he made room. The soil was bad, so he made it healthy. He needed a lot of help too, so he found it. And the result is a table bursting with food.
What else has Will done to sow seeds and spread the food around?
about the author
Jacqueline Briggs Martin grew up on a dairy farm in Lewiston, Maine, that had been in her family for seven generations. It was a crowded home. Her grandparents lived downstairs while Jacqueline, her five siblings, her parents, and a great-great uncle lived upstairs.
Many of the stories she later wrote were inspired by her big extended story-telling family, their history, and the time roaming the farm. Though she loved her family’s stories and the sound of words, she didn’t do much writing in school and never imagined becoming an author. She graduated from Wellesley College, attended the University of Minnesota Institute for Child Development, and taught preschool for many years.
Jacqueline and Rich, her English professor husband, raised their two children in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. Reading to her own children inspired her to start writing. She got up at 4 a.m. to write, and it was nine years before she published her first story. With her children grown, she writes nearly every day now in her first floor study that overlooks the front porch. Often she becomes so obsessed with the characters and world she is working on that she walks right into shelves and people. She is always a little sad when she finishes a story.
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Answers
Author biography: Bound to Stay Bound Bookstore
Author biography: McBook Words
Also by Jacqueline Briggs Martin:
Alice Waters and the Trip to Delicious. Readers to Eaters. 2014.
Chicken Joy on Redbean Road : A Bayou Country Romp. Houghton Mifflin. 2007.
Snowflake Bentley. Houghton Mifflin. 1998.
about the illustrator
Eric-Shabazz Larkin is an artist, writer, designer, illustrator, director, composer, and award-winning poet. He tends to reinvent himself every six months.
While he was growing up in Norfolk, Virginia, family dinners were a special time. His father would give him pop quizzes and his mother would tell stories about working in the hospital. Being disciplined, educated, and challenged at the table has made him a better person. He believes every family needs to treat dinnertime as special, away from the TV and car.
Eric has lived in Kenya, Portland, Seattle, and London. Currently, he lives in New York with his wife Ashley. He can’t wait to sit his family down at the table and pass on the family traditions.
Sources:
Illustrator website
Illustrator interview with himself: Creative School of Thought
Illustrator interview: School Library Journal
Also by Eric Larkin:
A Moose Boosh : A Few Choice Words about Food. Readers to Eaters. 2014.
read more!
Alice Waters and the Trip to Delicious by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Alice loved food at a very early age: at age three, she won a costume contest dressed in a lettuce skirt, strawberry necklace, and asparagus crown. While studying to be a chef in France, she learned all about selecting and preparing fresh foods. Since then, she’s founded Chez Panisse restaurant and the Edible Schoolyard Project. Learn all about this incredible chef!
Patient for Pumpkins by Linda L. Knoll
T.J. loves going to farmers’ markets with his father. He loves seeing the fruits and vegetables that grow during their seasons, and he learns a lot about why it is better to eat produce that is available in season—for example, pumpkins. T.J. really wants a pumpkin, but he will have to be patient and wait for them to grow!
Watch Me Grow! : A Down-to-Earth Look at Growing Food in the City by Deborah Hodge
Food isn’t just grown on farms. It can be grow on windowsills, balconies, yards, boulevards, and even rooftops. Learn about planting, tending, and harvesting food before eating it. Urban farming even grows community!