WE'RE GOING TO THE FARMERS' MARKET

A trip to the local farmers market provides the ingredients for a feast.

“To market, / to market, / we are on our way. // So many groceries to find, / on this warm sunny day!” The rest of the rhymed verse takes readers through a shopping excursion to buy eggs, cheese, veggies and more, to the kitchen to prepare them and, finally, to an impressive table covered with food on the final two pages. While Page’s art is graphically interesting, with boldly outlined shapes representing a variety of provisions against backgrounds with subtle patterns, some of the images may not read as food to the typical board-book readers, who are still learning to identify edibles. For example, a hunk of Swiss cheese is rendered with vertical, black lines running down one side, and pea pods are shaped like diamonds; a couple of vegetables and fruits may prove unrecognizable even to adults. The verse cleverly uses the first line and meter of the traditional rhyme “To Market, To Market,” but several of the lines don’t scan.

The idea for this book is just right for the board-book set, but the art may prove too abstract for youngsters still learning to connect what they find on their plates to what they see on the page.