The Charms of US Farms: Finding Out How Things Work follows a class visiting two farms who discover how important farm work is to everyday life. What was the inspiration for your story?

The inspiration for the story came from my interaction with students around the time of the pandemic. I discovered children were befuddled when I asked if they knew where food came from. Most simply answered “the grocery story”. When I asked about clothing, the response was similar. They were interested, curious and often surprised to find how the natural world provides for us in so many ways.

The book teaches a lot without ever feeling like a lesson. How did you balance storytelling with information?

It was easy to see-saw facts with fun in my story line. For instance, cows are providers of meat and many other products for us, and the fun fact is they have 4 stomachs! Farm matters abound with those types of things. They are inherent to the theme of farming. Corn? Sure, we eat it, but it’s used to make our crayons, paints and paper, too! 

How do you imagine teachers using this book in the classroom?

Farming is taught in elementary grades. Sometimes students have the opportunity to plant and grow their own vegetables or visit local farms for school trips and educational experiences. Reading The Charms of US Farms is an engaging way to further integrate lessons about farming in the Language Arts curriculum. 

Elementary studies include science (i.e. animal life cycles) and math (i.e. measuring plant growth), both conducive times to introduce the book to students.

Will this book be the start of a series, or are you working on a different story?

The Charms of US Farms is the start of a series of early readers revealing how “extraordinary” the seemingly “ordinary” things in our natural world truly are.

Illustrator Ann Pilicer and I are thrilled to share The Charms book, and hope it sparks a little inspiration for younger generations and readers around the world.

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