Northern Lights Book Awards
Fresh-picked Poetry: A Day at the Farmers’ Market
Winner of the Poetry and Cover Art categories
Author: Michelle Schaub
Illustrator: Amy Huntington
Charlesbridge
What’s the best way to get children to love poetry? Read it to them! However, don’t bog them down with overly long verses; it’s got to be light, fun and, well, snappy. Fresh-picked Poetry: A Day at the Farmers’ Market has got that and a whole lot more. With its happy-go-lucky illustrations, masterful layout and entertaining poems, children are going to pick (pun intended) this book out repeatedly. What’s more, this is not just a random set of verses. Instead, it follows a timeline as the pictures and poems tell a story of a budding friendship between two children who bond over their excitable dogs. The boy arrives early with his family in a pickup truck to sell veggies at the farmers market, while the girl is still eating breakfast in her apartment building. Along the way we meet meticulous farmer Rick and hear “fee, fi, faddle skiddely-skee” when we catch the market melody. There is even a poem for two voices about Dinosaur Kale and Zebra Tomato! Yep, those vegetables really do exist … we checked.
This is children’s poetry at its finest and deserves a place of honor in your poetry corner.
You can view the full list of Northern Lights Book Award winners here: http://northerndawnawards.com/2019-northern-lights-book-awards-winners/