Children's books about farms and farming
July 30, 2024
Good morning.
Thought you’d like to see this professional studio portrait I came across at my mom’s house recently. She was 41 — the same age I am now 🤯 — and I was 4.
Is anyone surprised we’re holding a book?
Mini issue: farms and farming
It’s a little startling to me that I have not, in the past 4+ years, written much of anything at all about farms and farming — unless you count my mini issue on farmer’s markets, which is related, to be sure, but not the same thing.
After all, Wisconsin is one of the biggest agriculture states in the country (the actual number depends on your metric, but we’re always in the top 10 no matter the measure); I live in the county that produces the most corn in the state; I know which crops I drive past every day (and which cover crops are controlling erosion in winter or when the land has been taken out of rotation for the year); I hear more about dirt from my husband, a USDA soil conservationist, than any one human being should have to. (Car rides are fun: LOOK, A GRASS WATERWAY! LOOK, ANOTHER ONE!)
I’m pretty passionate about where our food comes from, and moreover, making sure our children understand this too. Where does it grow? Who grows it? How does it get to our table?
This isn’t to say I go crazy on this topic — I go crazy about enough other things — I just want to foster gratitude for the big and the small alike (though I don’t think food is a small thing at all). I am also down for reading stories about farms and farm animals without any kind of explicit link to how they serve humans — farms are fascinating places, as are the animals and plants found there.
So this issue is a mixture of both kinds of titles: farms and farming books about where our food comes from alongside titles about, like, kicking up your heels in the barnyard (Barn Dance by by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault, anyone?👇)
If I’ve reviewed any of these titles, I’ve linked to those here.
Books for babies and toddlers:
Barnyard Dance! by Sandra Boynton
Noisy Farm by Rod Campbell
Mrs. Wishy Washy’s Farm by Joy Cowley (my favorite of all the Mrs. Wishy Washy books)
Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins
Down on the Farm by Merrily Kutner
Hello Farm, How Do You Do? by Marjolein Thiebout
Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
Picture books:
Milk: From Cow to Carton by Aliki (nonfiction)
It’s Milking Time by Phyllis Alsdurf
I Love Strawberries! by Shannon Anderson
Before We Eat by Pat Brisson
Farm Boots by Lisl H. Detlefsen
Right This Very Minute: A Table-to-Farm Book about Food and Farming by Lisl H. Detlefsen
Time for Cranberries by Lisl H. Detlefsen
Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candice Fleming
Uncle John’s City Garden by Bernette G. Ford
Thank a Farmer by Maria Giangerrari
The Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons (this is also an excellent Reading Rainbow episode, FYI)
Barn at Night by Michelle Houts
The Midnight Farm by Reeve Lindbergh
Chicken Talk by Patricia MacLachlan
The Hundred-Year Barn by Patricia MacLachlan
Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm by Alice and Martin Provensen
Baby Farm Animals by Garth Williams
Poetry
Our Farm: By the Animals of Farm Sanctuary by Maya Gottfried (above)
Chicken Scratches: Poultry Poetry and Rooster Rhymes by Lynn Brunelle and George Shannon
Cockadoodle Moo: Rhymes for the Very Young by John Foster
The Barn by Leah Rogers
Books for older readers, or read-alouds:
Escape From Baxter’s Barn by Rebecca Bond
The Farm That Feeds Us: A Year in the Life of an Organic Farm by Nancy Castaldo (nonfiction)
Chanticleer and the Fox, adapted from Geoffrey Chaucer by Barbara Cooney
Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer by Kelly Jones
Babe, the Gallant Pig by Dick King-Smith
Pigs Might Fly by Dick-King Smith
Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Alice’s Farm: A Rabbit’s Tale by Maryrose Wood
I know I’ve missed a ton of great farm and farming titles — add your suggestions!
Happy reading!
Sarah
Fun list! I got a copy of Right This Very Minute: A Table-to-Farm Book about Food and Farming by Lisl H. Detlefsen after you interviewed her a couple months ago. And it is a most excellent book. As someone who makes their living in production ag (Cow/Calf, Dry land white wheat). I sometimes get frustrated with the number of "We grow vegetables and sell them at the farmers market books." Not that that is not important - but it only shows part of ag. I really liked that her book showed modern equipment, and larger scale farm operations.
A few more farm themed books -
Chickens to the Rescue - John Himmelman - Cows to the Rescue is great too! these are sooo funny. I check them out about once a year to reread.
Tractor Mac series by Billy Steers - One of those books that shows stuff from the 1970s, but has tractors which my toddlers have loved.
Otis the Tractor series by Loren Long - Another series that has stuff from the 1970s my kids loved tractors though...
John Deere that's who by Tracy Maurer - For more like 6-10 history of steel plow blade.
On the subject of knowing where your food comes from... Many years ago we had some young (maybe 6y) kids visit. I took them in my garden and pulled out a carrot each and they were enchanted! It was like a magic trick. Pull these leaves and Ta-Da a carrot appears! They were at our house for several days and would periodically disappear to the garden to pull carrots and eat raspberries. One of them pulled a beet by accident - we had to discuss how different leaves had different roots growing underneath them.
We had another visitor who's family kept back yard chickens. I fed them Hamburgers for dinner - his mom was impressed and said "Kid do you know that this hamburger came from their cows?" the child replied "Like eggs?" I loved it.
Barnyard Dance was my kid’s favorite back when they were little 🥰