THANK A FARMER

From produce and bread to clothing and sweets, the favorite items that farmers bring to tables and homes.

Spot art of diverse families eating table-ready foods are combined with large-scale scenes of farms with people, machinery, and animals producing foods like wheat to make bread, milk for cereal, and fruits and vegetables—an effective juxtaposition of the consumers and producers of ingredients and products people use daily. Peanut butter, rice, wool sweaters and socks, and maple syrup are all items for which readers are encouraged to “thank a farmer.” Farmers, in turn, are thankful for the natural forces and creatures that make their farms work, from soil and sun to bees and trees. The text alternates between a simple sentence indicating an item to thank a farmer for (“berries and / cherries in your bowl”) and a lyrical description of the work that goes into that particular item (“Pinch. / Pluck. / Pull. / Fill the punnet”). Mikai’s warm, textured art is at its strongest here, complementing the more leisurely text with fully detailed scenes that give a strong sense of the realities of labor and the interconnectedness of people at different points in the food production chain. A full spread of backmatter offers more information about the farming methods featured in the book. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A valuable look at the roles farmers play in sustaining the lifestyles people enjoy.