FARMERS' MARKET

One summer Saturday in the life of Laura, a farmer's daughter who accompanies her parents and older brother to Lexington, Kentucky, where they sell their produce at an open-air market. They load their pickup before dawn and return after dark. In between, Laura stays busy refilling containers at the stand, with some time off to play with Betsy, her Saturday friend, whose mother runs a flower stall. A double-sized foldout spread shows Laura exploring four parts of the crowded, colorful market. From Johnson (with Celeste Lewis, Lost, 1996), an appealing story of a hardworking family and a little girl who knows how to do her job and have fun at the same time. Add it to a growing shelf of recent stories about markets: Nancy White Carlstrom's Baby-O (1992), Omar Casta§eda's Abuela's Weave (1993), and Pat Mora's Uno, Dos, Tres: One, Two, Three (1996). (Picture book. 4-7)