Elizabet Vukovic – Mom Read It

Earth Day is right around the corner! There are some great new books to have ready for a great readaloud. Let’s take a look.

Miss MacDonald Has a Farm, by Kalee Gwarjanski/Illustrated by Elizabet Vuković, (March 2024, Doubleday Books for Young Readers), $18.99, ISBN: 9780593568163

Ages 3-7

It’s a new spin on an old favorite! Miss MacDonald has a farm, and she loves to grow her own food in this ode to farm-to-table food. Kids are going to love this easy-to-learn song, with repetitive phrases like “Miss MacDonald has a farm. / She loves things that grow” and “E-I-E-I-GROW”. Miss MacDonald grows all sorts of yummy food, like tomatoes and green beans, sweet corn and pumpkins, and she “shuck-shucks” and “thrish-thrashes” her way through her fields, planting and harvesting her wares to bring to a farmer’s market and feasting at a community table with a diverse group of neighbors. It’s a fun way to illustrate where our food comes from and how it gets to the table, with colorful and appealing illustrations that show a young female farmer of color growing and harvesting her food. Back matter includes vocabulary that explains the steps in getting food to grow from seed to table, and a recipe for a harvest vegetable bake included in the story. I sang this story to a pre-k class during a school visit this week, and they loved it! This is a great story for anyone who’s doing flannel storytimes, too – get those colorful sheets out and make yourself a vegetable garden.

Chicken Soup for the Soul KIDS: The Sunshine Garden: Being a Team Player, by Jamie Michalak/Illustrated by Jenna Nahyun Chung, (March 2024, Charlesbridge), $14.99, ISBN: 9781623542863

Ages 4-7

The Sunshine Squad returns in this sweet story about kindness, teamwork, and gardening. The Sunshine Squad are six friends who loves to pretend they’re superheroes, and do some pretty great everyday superhero stuff. Mia, one of the Squad, learns that her grandma’s friend, Mr. Angelo, is sick and unable to tend to his community garden and steps in to help… but it’s a much bigger task than she realized. The rest of the Sunshine Squad step in and use their “superpowers” to get the job done and save the day! It’s a sweet story about helping one another and being kind, while showing kids that kindness can be a superpower. Back matter includes tips on being part of a team, with suggestions that work nicely within an Earth Day setting. It’s a good additional add to picture book collections, especially where Chicken Soup for the Soul books do well.

You Are a Little Seed, by Sook-Hee Choi, Translated by Jieun Kiaer, (March 2024, Charlesbridge), $15.99, ISBN: 9781623544287

Ages 2-5

Originally published in Korean in 2013, this is a gentle story that reads like poetry, describing seven types of flowers that bloom from different types of seeds and became beautiful flowers: “A seed, a seed blowing / in the wind… / took root in / the wild and bloomed / as a dandelion”. Children show up in the flowers as seeds and fully bloomed, showing readers that we can bloom under all sorts of conditions. A soft color palette creates a soothing setting, and the flower illustrations are breathtaking. A wonderful metaphor for how we grow and our beauty in diversity. My only concern is a pssage that describes a seed as “ugly and wrinkled”, which reads more like the author is referring to the child as unsightly; I’m hoping it was more of a moment where the child may feel that way but blossoms into themselves? Other than that, You Are a Little Seed is lovely.

You Are a Little Seed has starred reviews from Kirkus and Foreword Reviews.

Jasmine Toguchi, Mochi Queen, by Debbi Michiko Florence/Illustrated by Elizabet Vukovic, (July 2017, Farrar, Straus and Giroux), $15.99, ISBN: 9780374304102

Recommended for readers 6-9

Jasmine Toguchi is an 8 year-old dynamo. She’s funny, smart, and loves her family, especially during the holidays, when Obaachan, her grandmother, flies in from Japan and the family begins their mochi-tsuki ritual: mochi making! – a Japanese rice cake, made from pounded rice. The whole family gets involved in the process – except, that is, for Jasmine, who’s still too young to help out. Her older sister, Sophie, helps the women by hand-rolling the mocha balls. Her mean, older cousin, Eddie, helps the men pound the mochi with the super cool mochi hammer. But Jasmine is not yet 10, so she has to wait. In the meantime, Sophie and her mother order her around, and Eddie mercilessly teases her. So Jasmine comes up with a plan: it’s time to break tradition! She’s going to convince her family to let her pound the mochi this year! But first, she’s got to build up her arm strength — that mochi hammer is heavy!

Jasmine Toguchi, Mochi Queen is a fun early chapter book for readers who are moving up from Easy Readers. We meet Jasmine, a spunky, Japanese-American girl who loves her family tradition of making mochi, but feels like it’s time for a change. She’s tired of her older sister getting to be the first to do everything, and she’s tired of her obnoxious cousin. She wants to make her own statement, her own mark in the family, and when she sets her mind to it, there’s no stopping her. Kids will enjoy learning about Japanese traditions and relate to the frustration that comes with being told “you’re too young”, when they feel perfectly ready and able to pitch in. An author’s note explains mochi-tsuki, and provides a microwave mochi recipe for kids and their adults to try together. Black and white illustrations bring Jasmine and her world closer to readers. There’s a second book coming in July, with more activities at the end of the story.

Jasmine Toguchi is a good, new series to add to your intermediate collections – there’s some lovely diversity available for readalikes, including the Ruby Lu and Alvin Ho series, by Lenore Look; the Clara Lee series by Jenny Han; the Katie Woo and Pedro books by Fran Manushkin, and Ellray Jakes, by Sally Warner.

Get an early peek at the next Jasmine Toguchi titles (and covers) by navigating over to author Debbi Michiko Florence’s site, where you can also find info about author visits, with programs she conducts for each grade.

Tag: Elizabet Vukovic

New Earth Day Reads!

Jasmine Toguchi is determined to make mochi!