Spring Is for Strawberries

by Katherine Pryor, Polina Gortman (Illustrator)

Overview

An illustrated tale of a friendship between two children, one from the farm and one from the city, meeting at a local farmers market over the course of one delicious year

There’s nothing like the sounds and smells of the first farmers market of the year. The sweetness of fresh fruits and local vegetables permeates the air and breathes new life into our recipes just as the spring brings new life to the earth. This illustrated tale follows the budding friendship between two girls who meet at a local farmers market, and reminds us that food is the great unifier of all humankind.

When a farm family brings their spring crops to a city farmers market, the farmer’s daughter befriends the daughter of a neighborhood family doing their weekly shopping. Over the course of a year, the girls explore the bounty of each season. Sweet spring strawberries and crisp, fresh greens make way for corn on the cob, peppers, and a rainbow of summer tomatoes. Fall brings pumpkin patches and the crunch of apples.The friends part at the final winter market, already looking forward to the sweet red strawberries that will unite them again next spring.

Katherine Pryor’s lyrical celebration of seasonal local foods is brought to life by Polina Gortman’s illustrations of a growing friendship between two children from seemingly different worlds. Spring Is for Strawberries is a charming and fun read-aloud story that reminds us to seek pleasure in the changing harvests around us, and that all things—even friendships—have seasons worth waiting for.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780764365720
Publisher:	Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
Publication date:	03/28/2023
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.88(w) x 8.88(h) x (d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Katherine Pryor is the award-winning author of several children’s books celebrating food and gardens. She shops her local farmers market with her family every chance she gets. Katherine lives on a island in Washington State. Learn more at www.KatherinePryor.com

Polina Gortman is a children’s book illustrator living with her family in the evergreen Pacific Northwest. Polina enjoys sketching from nature, reading, and visiting local farms to pick yummy veggies. Learn more at www.GortmanIllustration.com

Editorial Reviews

Katherine Pryor has a track record of helping kids learn about food through joyful exploration, and her new book lives up to her best. It is a berry sweet story to accompany a day spent at your local farmers market.

Amber Stott

This beautifully illustrated book introduces kids to the delight of anticipation, the beauty of seasonal eating, and the friendships and flavors that come along with this kind of Slow Food.

Anna Mule

03/13/2023

A family farm and a city farmer’s market are the backdrops for a journey through the seasons—and the stages of a new friendship—in this thoughtful look at nature’s bounty. After a winter spent “waiting,/ wondering,” a white-presenting farm family plants the fruits and vegetables they’ll eventually take to market. First up are spring strawberries, “staining lips heart red” as a child from the farm shares a juicy bowl of the berries with a city child visiting the market with their Black- and white-presenting parents. Months pass as the two families bond over seasonal foods—peaches, melons, corn, apples, pumpkins—and visit each other’s neighborhoods before winter arrives and everyone, Pryor writes, is “waiting for that first red fruit/ when springtime blooms again.” The cheery-faced figures at the humming market stands, and the tempting rainbow of produce, make Gortman’s mixed-media paintings feel like friendly “buy local” posters. Back matter offers information about strawberry varietals. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

A wonderful homage to local farmers markets and the delicious food found there!

Rick Swann

2022-12-14
Join families in this town as they embrace the seasons and eat locally via their farmers market.

Lyrical verse with plenty of rhyme and alliteration guides readers through the year. While “winter is for waiting,” spring is for planting and sprouting and then shopping for “strawberries, / staining lips heart red,” sugar peas, and leafy greens at the farmers market. Spring is also for lemonade, and the lilac sunset behind an informal baseball practice radiates with the vibrancy of late spring and summer. Summer is for fruit that’s sweet and juicy enough to “slurp” down: “peppers, melons, corn on the cob, / a rainbow of tomatoes.” Fall brings cool winds, golden leaves, jack-o’-lanterns, and feasts along with apples, beets, and squash. Winter arrives again, with evergreen wreaths, snowflakes, a cupboard full of summer’s bounty, the dismantling of the farmers market, and a new round of waiting for springtime blooms. Throughout the year, illustrations with a palette reflecting the ripest produce show a growing friendship between two children, one of whom is Black-presenting, the other of whom is light-skinned. The community is racially diverse; a character is depicted using a wheelchair. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A delightful blend of friendship, fresh food, melodious language, and luscious illustrations. (information about strawberries and eating seasonally and locally) (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews