Digging in the Dirt: Potatoes and Books
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are visual feasts. Family members pick and prepare nopales Digging in the Dirt: Potatoes and Books (the young green leaves of the prickly pear), make tamales Be a Wise Owl! by John Coy and empanadas, prepare barbecues and watermelon, pick oranges, and kill chickens for the Sunday dinner. Here, too, tortillas are central. “How can you eat tacos without If a man really likes potatoes, arrival of a new book. tortillas? How can you eat beans without tortillas?” Lomas he must be a pretty decent sort of Students researched the origin Garzas asks in her exquisite Magic Windows/Ventanas fellow. of the potato among the Inca, mágicas (Children’s Book Press, 1999), with its intricate -A. A. Milne developed interesting potato facts, cut paper art. Her tribute to her mother, “Little Tortillas for made potato prints, and talked Mother/Tortillitas para mama,” echoes the special place In the spring of 1999, I planted about the process of planting tortillas hold in many of these books, “Flour tortillas are As a subscriber to The Five Owls you can my entire garden with potatoes. I and harvesting. Susan read the my favorite kind because my mother always made them. become eligible to receive Free Children’s was going to be in Europe for five manuscript of Two Old Potatoes She still does. It’s more than just cooking with her. It’s an Books for your school or library. weeks that summer, and I wanted And Me to students and asked them act of love.” a crop that would fill my plot at to draw pictures. The students had In a Southwestern version of the Gingerbread Boy, Eric the Mulberry Junction Community worked recently with illustrator A. Kimmel’s The Runaway Tortilla, illustrated by Randy Free Newsletters for Parents Garden in Minneapolis and not Lauren Stringer who had talked Cecil (Winslow, 2000), an especially light female tortilla For schools and libraries which subscribe to require too much care. I composted about the challenge of illustrating takes the place of the runaway gingerbread boy, and is our magazine, we provide free quantities of the plants well and hoped we’d have somebody else’s words. Now they chased by “six buckaroos galloping, five rattlesnakes The Five Owls for Parents, a 4-page regular rain. were getting a chance to do exactly slithering, four jackrabbits leaping, three donkeys trotting, When I returned, I was pleased to that. I told them I would bring two horned toads scampering, and Tía Lupe and Tío José quarterly newsletter to help parents foster see how well the potatoes had done. Carolyn’s pictures to show how she running after her, as fast as they could go.” It is no surprise the love of reading: Other gardeners commented on them illustrated the story. that she meets her end in the mouth of a wily Señor Coyote. • engaging articles about reading, and asked how to plant them. As I On May 22, we met at the The prevalence of food in Southwestern children’s parenting, and child development weeded and added more compost, Anderson Center to discuss the literature reflects the importance of home, family, and • up to 300 newsletters free, with more I felt connected to my dad, my process of making the book. I friendship in the traditional cultures of the Southwest. From Illustration by Carolyn Fisher for grandpa and all my Irish and Polish Digging in the Dirt (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003) showed students my first draft, chiles to corn, beans, tamales, and tortillas, these traditional at just $9 per 100 ancestors who dug in the dirt. revisions, suggestions from the foods reflect the intertwined heritage of Native American • only cost per shipment is reimbursement When I harvested the potatoes, I had more than I could editor, and possible titles. Then I showed them print sheets, and Spanish traditions, and ties to the land that help to of $7.50 handling plus postage eat, so I gave some to friends. Norton Stillman, a bookstore jacket copy, and folded and gathered pages of Carolyn’s make this part of the country and its literature distinctive. (billed upon each shipment of parent newsletters) owner, called after eating the potatoes. illustrations. The students were delighted with Carolyn’s May these traditions long endure. “You should write about growing potatoes,” he said. bright, bold illustrations. They were surprised that she does Finishing, as we began, with Ann Nolan Clark’s In Free Books for Schools and Libraries “That would make a good picture book for children.” most of her work on the computer. My Mother’s House: Schools and libraries which subscribe to our Normally when people suggest a topic I should write about, After our discussion and questions, we went out to the nothing comes of it. Usually it is the person who suggests garden. Robert Hedin, the director of the Anderson Center, Brown fields, magazine and distribute the parent had asked a local farmer to plow the potato patch. Students You will turn to green; newsletters are eligible to enroll in “The the story who should write it. But the next day, I set my Little green corn ears other work aside and started writing about potatoes. brought old potatoes with sprouts. Parents produced Growing, Wise Owls Program,” through which they After numerous revisions, excellent editing by Nancy shovels, rakes and hoes. Students dug into the earth on periodically receive free books to enhance Hinkel, and stunning illustrations by Carolyn Fisher, that the cloudy day and I hoped the rain would hold while we Little green corn ears their children’s collections: story became Two Old Potatoes And Me (Alfred A. Knopf, planted our spuds. Dancing, • schools and libraries receive gifts of 2003). On the dedication page Carolyn made a sprout The students worked together to plant one hundred For the rain, hills of potatoes. At my request, Robert had bales of hay books at least once a year coming off a potato that says, “Thanks to Norton Stillman For the sun. for the idea.” delivered, and students placed these around the hills to keep • librarians may specify types of books The book was published in the summer of 2003. To down the weeds. As we were planting, a light rain began to Time to gather them, they most want to receive celebrate, Amy Baum, a bookseller at the Red Balloon fall — perfect for growing. I was impressed as the students Blue corn and red corn; Bookshop in St. Paul, suggested I plant potatoes at the pulled out their jackets, and not a single one complained Time to harvest them, (picture books, early readers, young Yellow corn and white corn. adult novels, nonfiction) Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Red Wing, about the rain. After the planting, it was time for potato races. Students • only cost per shipment is reimbursement Minnesota. Each September, the Anderson Center hosts There will be dancing; a Festival of Children’s Authors and Illustrators. Amy held one hand behind their back and carried a potato in There will be feasting, of $10.00 handling plus postage thought it would be great to have kids listen to Two Old a spoon with the other. Students improvised variations: Thanking the sun and the rain (billed upon each shipment of children’s books) Potatoes And Me and then dig up potatoes. backwards, sideways, twirls, and jumps. Afterwards at For corn. I loved the idea and contacted Susan Richardson, a lunch, everybody had potato chips. To subscribe to librarian in Red Wing. She connected me with two fourth Over the summer, Jefferson families weeded, mulched, Linnea Hendrickson has taught children’s literature at the University of “The Wise Owls Program,” grade teachers at Jefferson Elementary School, Mary and watered the potato patch. Robert and I added more New Mexico since 1987, and is also the librarian at Bandelier Elementary Trapanese and John Schegelmilch, who were eager to have compost in July. Thanks to the volunteers, I was optimistic School in Albuquerque, NM. see the inside back cover their classes involved. Susan and I developed ideas to that we’d have potatoes for the festival. of the mailing wrap. prepare the students, not only for the planting, but for the On September 13, I read Two Old Potatoes And Me The Five Owls 2005 The Five Owls 2004 44 65 in the potato patch at the Anderson Center. Afterwards everybody dug up some spuds. What a wonderful scene of Quizzical Quotations Joan Aiken and The Wolves Chronicles: kids digging in the dirt to discover treasure. Kids compared Here’s a chance to test your knowledge of children’s different potato varieties, shapes and sizes. Some found Bright, Dark, and Always Imaginative literature. All of the quotations below come from famous funny faces, as they had in the book, and decided who they by Richard C. Burke children’s books, and all refer to food. See if you can resembled. Kids carried off paper bags of potatoes with identify the books from which these quotations are taken. their books about potatoes. You are allowed to ask children for help. One of the main reasons to establish a planting project is that many kids don’t know much about where food comes 1. It’s nothing but limes now, for everyone is sucking them from. As America has become urbanized, fewer students in their desks in school time, and trading them off for live on farms or visit relatives on farms. I have been pencils, bead rings, paper dolls, or something else, at amazed that some students don’t know that bread is made recess.