Apples and Oranges
How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman
This picture book, with endpapers that show a map of the world, details exactly what level of continental hopping would be required to get all the ingredients for an apple pie if we had to do the traveling ourselves each time we wanted to bake one. It's an eye-opening tour of food origins for the young, and stands out among many books on food production for children that elide or obscure what really goes on. As I've said before, to read children's nonfiction on food, you might think it was all organic, local, and paid good wages to harvesters.
An Orange in January by Dianna Hutts Aston, illus. by Julie Maren
Another rarity in that this book tells the true, if rosy, story of how oranges comes to be available in January, including all the transportation necessary to make it so. The orange does, unfortunately, seem to come from a mythical land of goodness and sunshine. No mention is made of the harvesting laborers, but at least they are shown and do have brown skin, which is closer to accurate than it might be. Despite its shortcomings, this is indeed a much more accurate book than most.
This picture book, with endpapers that show a map of the world, details exactly what level of continental hopping would be required to get all the ingredients for an apple pie if we had to do the traveling ourselves each time we wanted to bake one. It's an eye-opening tour of food origins for the young, and stands out among many books on food production for children that elide or obscure what really goes on. As I've said before, to read children's nonfiction on food, you might think it was all organic, local, and paid good wages to harvesters.
An Orange in January by Dianna Hutts Aston, illus. by Julie Maren
Another rarity in that this book tells the true, if rosy, story of how oranges comes to be available in January, including all the transportation necessary to make it so. The orange does, unfortunately, seem to come from a mythical land of goodness and sunshine. No mention is made of the harvesting laborers, but at least they are shown and do have brown skin, which is closer to accurate than it might be. Despite its shortcomings, this is indeed a much more accurate book than most.
