School Library Journal Review

Gr 6 Up-Tasty tomatoes, sweet honey, the freshest eggs, and crunchy pickles: Is there anything that motivates a teenager like food? These five books strike a terrific balance between the why and how of homegrown food production, addressing issues such as ethical farming practices, fertilizer runoff, urban blight, food deserts, and more. Kids will learn how to set up a worm bin, make jelly, raise chicks, harvest honey, and look for grant money and donations to start a community garden. That's a lot of content, but, luckily for readers, the texts are studded with sidebars on exciting subjects like Africanized honeybees and chicken crime-scene analysis (chickens have lots of predators), as well as examples of teenagers who have started successful charitable or business projects. High-quality color pictures of kids working or clowning around in school or community gardens provide credibility and lighten the mood. These books emphasize environmental, social, and health awareness in a fully modern context and will provide inspiration and research leads for school projects as well as home or community activities. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.