Children’s Books
Explore these children’s literature books covering interests to children, from birth to adolescence, that reflect reliable information and meet today’s standards of agricultural learning.
Visit www.feedingmindspress.com to discover more accurate agriculture books!
A Leaf Can Be…
By: Laura Purdie Salas
Grade Level: K-2
A beautiful, whimsical, rhythmic, imaginative story highlighting some long-known roles and surprising, not-before-realized roles, leaves play in nature and with other creatures.
Auntie Yang’s Great Soybean Picnic
By: Ginnie Lo
Grade Level: 3-4
This is a story of two Chinese-American sisters and their families as they discover a soybean field on a Sunday drive in Illinois. Excited by their discovery, their picnic tradition grows, and eventually the family hosts annual events for the whole community. The story happens at the intersection of commercial farming in the U.S. and a beloved food in Asian cultures. The purpose of this activity will be to interact with the story with discussion questions and writing activities while increasing an understanding of the agriculture that surrounds us in Nebraska.
Clarabelle
By: Laura Purdie Salas
Grade Level: K-2
By featuring a single cow (Clarabelle) and her calf on a large, modern-day Wisconsin dairy farm, Peterson describes all the latest technology that enables farmers to create energy and other by-products from their herds. And yes, none of the modern-day machinery matches the miracle of production that is the cow herself. Vibrant, close-up photographs capture Clarabelle with her herdmates and her newborn calf as well as the family members of the dairy.
Farm
By: Elisha Cooper
Grade Level: 3-4
There is so much to look at and learn about on a farm – animals, tractors, crops, and barns. And children feeding animals for morning chores! With lyrical writing and beautiful illustrations that capture the rhythms of the changing seasons, the author brings the farm to life.
Farmer George Plants a Nation
By: Peggy Thomas
Grade Level: 3-5
Besides being a general and the first President of the United States, George Washington was also a farmer who enjoyed experimenting with seeds, tools, and fertilizers. He also tinkered with plows, designed a sixteen-sided barn, and plotted the location of each new tree he planted. In this book, the reader will learn how George created a self-sufficient farm at Mount Vernon, Virginia.
First Peas to the Table
By: Susan Grigsby
Grade Level: 3-5
A fun work of fiction in which a girl competes in a classroom garden competition to see who can get the ‘first peas to the table.’ Based on the contest that Thomas Jefferson held with his friends and neighbors every year, this book seamlessly integrates school gardens, history, botany, and seasonal weather themes into one fun-to-read book. Teachers may even consider modeling a classroom science project after the one featured in this book.
Grandpa’s Tractor
By: Michael Garland
Grade Level: K-2
Once, the farmer’s best friend was a red tractor. Back then, the pastures were filled with cows, and the fields were full of corn. Today, the cows are gone and the rows of corn have been replaced with row after row of identical houses. Grandpa Joe brings his grandson Timmy back to the site of the family farm, where the old house and a ramshackle barn still stand. The visit evokes many memories for Grandpa Joe, which he shares with Timmy—in particular, the majesty of his own father’s shiny red tractor, now rusting in the forgotten fields.
John Deere, That’s Who!
By: Tracy Nelson Maurer
Grade Level: K-3
Back in the 1830s, who was a young blacksmith from Vermont, about to make his mark on American history? John Deere, that’s who! Who moved to Illinois, where farmers were struggling to plow through the thick, rich soil they called gumbo? Who tinkered and tweaked and tested until he invented a steel plow that sliced into the prairie easy as you please? Long before the first tractor, who changed farming forever? John Deere, that’s who!
PB&J Hooray!
By: Janet Nolan
Grade Level: Pre K-2
Learn how peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are made! This book describes how peanuts become peanut butter, grapes are made into jelly, and wheat turns into bread. The fun, rhythmic language is perfect for PreK- Grade 2 students.
Seed, Soil, Sun: Earth’s Recipe for Food
By: Cris Peterson
Grade Level: K-2
The miraculous process by which air and water combine with seed, soil and sun create the food we eat. Using corn plants as an example, the author takes the reader through the story of germination and growth of a tiny corn seed into a giant plant reaching high into the air with roots extending over six feet into the ground. Readers can also explore the make-up of soil and the amazing creatures that live there from microscopic one-celled bacteria to moles, amoebas, and earth worms.
Sleep Tight Farm
By: Eugenie Doyle
Grade Level: 3-4
A captivating exploration of how a family gets a farm ready for the snow and winter in a beautiful and informational book. This book paints a fascinating picture of what winter means to the farm year and to the family that shares its seasons, from spring’s new growth, summer’s heat, and fall’s bounty to winter’s well-earned rest. All year long the farm has worked to shelter us, feed us, keep us warms, and now it’s time to sleep.
The Apple Orchard Riddle
By: Margaret McNamara
Grade Level: K-2
In this playful and humorous story, the students learn a lot about apples and apple orchards – including how apples are harvested, how cider is made, and what the different varieties of apples are – while trying to solve a riddle.
The Beeman
By: George Levensonon
Grade Level: K-5
Told from the viewpoint of a child whose Grandpa is a beekeeper, this rhyming text offers an accessible and engaging introduction to the behavior of bees. You will learn where bees live, how honey is made, what a beekeeper does, and more.
The Pumpkin Circle
By: George Levensonon
Grade Level: 3-5
The poetry of this text winds in and around photographs like the tendrils of a pumpkin vine, snaring your imagination and trapping your interest in where the story will lead. This book truly tells the story of the life cycle of pumpkins as a cycle.
The Thing About Luck
By: Cynthia Kadohata
Grade Level: 5-6
Summer knows that “kouun” means good luck in Japanese, and it seems like this year her family has none of it. Right before harvest, an emergency causes her parents to go back to Japan. Summer and her brother are left with her grandparents who must come out of retirement to harvest wheat and help pay the bills.
*Chapter Book*
Thomas Jefferson Grows a Nation
By: Peggy Thomas
Grade Level: 3-6
Thomas Jefferson loved to grow everything – from fruits and vegetables and trees to…even his new nation! And he loved to boast that this new nation was big, beautiful, and bountiful. As president, Jefferson doubled the size of the country in just one day. Back at home, he lovingly tended his gardens and fields and prepared America’s soils for the future.
Tops and Bottoms
By: Janet Stevens
Grade Level: 3-4
Bear and hare are involved in a gardening project. Hare, the book’s main character, tricks his lazy colleague into sharing crops which only benefit the hard work of the hare. During the process children learn which foods grow above the ground and which grow below ground, hence the title – tops and bottoms. This is a great book to introduce gardening topics!
