Farming. Ann Love and Jane Drake. Illustrated by Pat Couples. Toronto: Kids Can Press, 1996. 32 pp., hardcover, $14.99. ISBN I-55074-228-0 Subject Heading: Agriculture-Juvenile literature. Kindergarten - grade 4 / Ages 5 - 9. Review by Michele F. Kallio. ****/4

Kids Can Press has done it again with a new series, Canada At Work, by Ann Love and Jane Drake with illustrations by Pat Cupples, and it was my pleasure to review this book from the series.

Farming is a 24 cm by 21 cm, beautifully presented and illustrated picture book, aimed at the Kindergarten to Grade 4 age group. A read aloud or read-it-yourself book, it offers schools and libraries a wide range of potential readers.

Farming tells the story of Nick and his friend Karin, to whom he describes living and working on a small Ontario vegetable farm, "one of the many kinds of farms in Canada." In explaining to Karin about the danger of bad weather - in this case an approaching thunderstorm - he tells how onions are grown on his father's farm. With wonderful illustrations, the authors explain farm machinery, planting, the tending of crops, harvesting and marketing.

Karin's family owns a beef farm in southern British Columbia that raises 600 head of cattle. Nick goes to visit her and learns about cattle drives, hay-harvesting, fence-building, branding and marketing.

The book ends with Nick and Karin's Cross Country Lunch and includes an index.

Highly Recommended

Michele F. Kallio is a former teacher/librarian living in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick.

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Copyright © 1996 the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364