Farmers' Market [Hardcover]

Paul Brett Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1997 | Age Level: 4 and up

Laura gets the chance to feel useful, all summer long. For hers is a farming family, and on Saturdays, she and her brother, Mitch, and their parents load their truck with fresh-picked produce and head into town to set up their market stand. Set during the high point in the market day, this book opens to a gatefold panorama, lively, profuse, and colorful.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2. A farm family makes their weekly trip to sell produce at a nearby city market. Laura helps at the vegetable stand before meeting a friend. The striking acrylic paintings are the strongest part of the book. Johnson starts off with the cool colors of the early dawn as Laura and her family load the truck for their trip to the city. The hues brighten to the full-light noon of a summer celebration, with colorful umbrellas and food for sale. The center of the book opens out to a wordless four page spread showing Laura taking in the sights of the market from artists and craftspeople to other farmers. Unfortunately, the text is drab compared to the vivid pictures. Laura finds her friend, who is surrounded by the colorful flowers her mother sells. The text describes the girl "putting rubber bands around bunches of dried stuff," without providing any more detail. The girls' big adventure is to find a dollar bill and spend it on ice cream. This event hardly needed the unique backdrop of the market. The language never conveys the sights and sounds and smells of the setting. Eve Bunting's Market Day (HarperCollins, 1996) and Katrin Hyman Tchana's Oh, No, Toto (Scholastic, 1997) are better titles that take advantage of the market setting.?Judith Gloyer, Milwaukee Public Library
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 4^-7. On summer Saturdays, young Laura and her family get up before dawn, pack their truck with fresh vegetables, and drive to the Lexington, Kentucky, Farmers' Market. There they set up shop on folding tables, working hard until midmorning, when Laura takes a break to explore with her friend Betsy. The girls find a dollar--enough for ice-cream treats--and then return to their families to pack up and drive home. Johnson's rich acrylic artwork spans the time frame of day, highlighting the blues of early morning, gold tones of midday, and purples of late afternoon and evening. Of special note is the center double-page spread, which opens up to a four-panel poster depicting Laura's stops as she strolls through the booths on her way to meet Betsy. A good choice for summer story hours, this will also make a fine addition to primary social studies units. Kay Weisman

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Orchard Books (NY); 1St Edition edition (March 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0531300145
• ISBN-13: 978-0531300145
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,015,005 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Strictly a Car to Market idea, June 2, 2011

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tradess2006 "tradess2004" (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Farmers' Market (Hardcover)

my 3 year old grandbaby likes to read it on our way to the farmers market, but personnally, its way dated and not that appealing to me. We go over the book once we have done our shopping for the morning though.